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FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

Those Things Floating in the Sky, Explained

Today on TAP consults an expert.

So, what are those airborne things that we're now shooting down? OK,
the first was clearly a Chinese spy balloon, but as to the subsequent
ones, as The Washington Post noted in an editorial
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today, "Authorities say they really don't know the origin or purpose
of the three-but did tell people not to worry that they were sent by
aliens."

I don't normally give over my On TAPs to others, but when conundrums
present themselves that I cannot untangle, I'm happy to defer to
genuine authorities. In this case, the authority to whom I defer is the
late essayist Robert Benchley, whose 1930s paper "Mysteries From the
Sky" is suddenly and urgently germane (though its focus is on objects
that fall to Earth without the assistance of the Air Force, which had
not yet been created when Benchley wrote). As for Benchley's bona
fides, I think his description of an author from another of his essays,
"Contributors to This Issue," can judiciously be applied to Benchley
himself. That contributor, Benchley wrote, "probably knows more about
people, as such, than anyone in the country, unless it is people
themselves."

Herewith, some excerpts from "Mysteries From the Sky."

What, for instance, do we know about the many strange things which fall
from the sky? I don't mean old overshoes and snaffle-bits, which
everybody knows about, but those large masses or nergium and philutium,
which are always dropping out of nowhere onto Kansas and Oklahoma ...

The most famous deposit of this kind occurred near Dormant, Kansas, in
1846. Following a heavy thunderstorm during the night, workers in the
fields were more surprised than pleased to find that a whole new State
had been added to the Union right on top of their wheat, apparently
having dropped from the sky. This made it necessary to elect two more
Senators to go to Congress and to have one more State fair each year ...

The so-called "rain of frogs" in North Dakota in 1859 was another
mix-up. Enoch Kaffer, a farmer, was walking along a road near Oyster Bed
one day when he was hit on the head by a falling frog. On looking up to
see where it had come from, he was hit over the eye with another frog.
Deciding that it was time to get out of there, he started to run, but
soon found himself pelted on all sides by a rain of frogs, all in an
ugly humor.

On reaching home, Kaffer told his experience to his wife, who divorced
him ...

Benchley's paper continues, but I think the above is sufficient to
dispel our confusions and allay our concerns.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

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Chemical Desolation in Appalachia
<[link removed]>
Freight rail companies are running their trains ragged to boost profits.
Sometimes they crash. BY JAROD FACUNDO

Breaking Up (With China) Is Hard to Do
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In the absence of more attention to the supply chain, the U.S. is
becoming even more reliant on Beijing-and 'friendshoring' often
increases that dependence. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

Does COVID-19 Damage the Immune System?
<[link removed]>
The balance of evidence strongly indicates that outside of rare cases,
it does not. BY RYAN COOPER

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