Sometimes when I’m working on stories, I wonder if I’m asking the right questions, digging deep enough.
In most cases, I don’t have time to pour over facts and figures; I have to work with what I’m presented. It then goes out in print for readers to consider and come to their own conclusions.
The problem with the most interesting questions is that the answers are hard to come by. And the people who are asked sometimes don’t want to answer.
Here are some examples of questions that have been floating around my head:
Why are public employees so appalled that they might see wage freezes and insurance hikes when the private sector is facing the same thing?'
Why do senior citizens use the catch phrase "I’m on a fixed income" so much? I don’t know any young people who aren’t on a "fixed" income either … and they don’t get discounts.
Why do zoning issues get more attention from the public than any other part of local government?
Why are the people who talk about idyllic memories of Rock County the same ones who left to make their lives elsewhere?
Why is there a light
in the fridge
and not in the freezer?
Some other unimportant, clichéd questions are still out there, too, but I (thankfully) don’t have to address them as part of my job:
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a blackened crisp, which no one would eat?
Why do doctors leave the room when you undress if they look under the gown anyway?
Why is it that the people who tell you to calm down are the people who got you upset in the first place?
Why do they call the crop of TV shows without actors "reality TV" when they aren’t about anything that’s real?
Why is the person who handles money called a broker?
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
Published March 13, 2003
