Gardener

It’s Super Bowl week and the air waves are buzzing with talk and previews of some of the multi-million dollar TV ads that will be appearing during the broadcast of the Super Bowl.  Why do corporations pay 4 million dollars for a 30 second spot?  Well, the obvious answer is that they are guaranteed the largest viewing audience of the year. But a more basic question is this:  Does the advertising work?  Does it move people to go out and buy the products that are being advertised?  And this is a question that applies not just to Super Bowl ads but to most advertising.  Do people buy stuff—stuff they did not plan on buying, stuff they did not realize they needed--because they see/hear/read ads? Does advertising work? Of course! Would tough-minded, bottom-line oriented businesses spend $4 million for a half minute if they were not certain that it works? The still more important question is this:  What does advertising do to us?  Fift...

The temperature in Sioux Center yesterday was about 15 below, with a wind chill 7 octaves below middle C. Weather like this invariably provokes comments about global warming—sometimes aimed at me because I am an outspoken believer in the existence of global warming and its accompanying dire consequences for planet Earth.  “So, what do you think about global warming now?”  someone in  The Fruited Plain might say to me.  In the last week our daily newspaper, The Sioux City Journal, has had two cartoons ridiculing global warming. What can I say?   I can remind everyone that we are talking about global temperatures—not Iowa temps or North American temps.  Most Americans can define global in the abstract, but when it modifies “ warming,” they seem unable to apply it to the noun.  Here are some examples of why that is significant:          November, 2013, was relatively cold in northwest Iowa, but globally i...