The next time someone tells you something as gospel truth, and then backs it up with the assertion that “scientists agree” on this issue, try responding with this statistical gem: “Scientists also agree that 43 percent of the time that someone claims agreement among all scientists, no such agreement exists.”

I don’t get many billion-dollar ideas. So when I do, I hope the people who count will take it seriously.

The idea is to save the United States Postal Service before it implodes and collapses of its own weight. I suggest that we radically reduce the USPS’ costs by cutting service to all of us. We could do that by a simple plan by which everyone with even-numbered ZIP codes would get their mail delivered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Those with odd-numbered ZIP codes would get service on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

A friend from Pennsylvania told me the story 25 years ago, but I still remember the depressingly funny details.

He was mostly retired but drove a public school bus to augment his income. Glancing in his rearview mirror, my friend noticed that one of his young passengers was breaking the no-gum-chewing rule designed to keep the buses passably clean. 

I used to think that nothing brought me more delight than to hear someone respond to a story or column in WORLD by saying quite simply, “I didn’t know that.” Now I know I was much too easily satisfied. Real gratification comes, I’ve discovered, when someone reads, reflects, agrees—and then, as a result, changes his or her behavior in a significant manner.

It was, I must confess, becoming a bad habit. Every time in the last couple of years when I heard the secular media note the death of some celebrity, I found myself wondering: How will they do this when Billy Graham dies?

I’ve asked the same question in this space half a dozen different ways—but here it is again: If, by merely snapping your fingers or waving a magic wand, you could take the society and culture you live in today back to some earlier point, what date would you choose? If you could rewind the video recorder we call “America’s History” and be awarded a second chance, what would you pick as your new starting point?

Or, to put it more succinctly—and more bluntly—where did we go so wrong?

A couple of news items grabbed my attention a few days ago. But it was more for what they didn’t report than for what they did.

The first involved a veteran CEO’s report to the stockholders of his big company. “Times are good,” he was able to report truthfully. The consensus in the room was that the economy is good and that the new tax laws are favorable. But then, conceding that there were also a few dark clouds on the horizon, the executive stopped short of what seems to me might have been a very helpful analysis.