Misapplications Reviews: Lightning Strikes Twice

Although the “Misapplications Reviews” section is nearly five years old, I have never before felt an urge to discuss the reaction to one of my columns. This is largely because the written response to such pieces has typically ranged from sparse to nonexistent. (When Steve Pollock asked “is anyone out there?” he was articulating a question that had been twitching on my lips.) But there has been one deviation from this pattern that was so altogether striking that I've decided to use this column to describe it. That doing so might seem subtly boastful troubled me at first, but then I concluded that life would be terribly bland if we all suppressed interesting stories out of an obsession with appearing modest. The column in question (March–April 1986) proposed that airport operations be suspended whenever a thunderstorm cell exists within (say) five miles of the control tower.