The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

This is the time of year that the public gets hoodwinked by evil radio personalities, news reporters, television reporters and weathermen in general!

This is the time of the year that early in the morning you are likely to hear the following words, spoken with sort of an evil glee!

“It is five below zero but hold on to your hats radio audience. The wind is blowing so it is really thirty-five below zero. Maybe you should not go to work this morning.”

The voice that is saying those words, is really saying, I got up early and faced the wind chill. I got to where I am going. I am nice and warm but now you have to get up and face the thirty-five below as well. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. The ha ha’s get into a sort of fiendish tone if you listen closely.

For wind chill is certainly the work of the devil!

Can you imagine the Native Americans staying here for more than a couple of weeks if they knew about wind chill? And, as for the pioneers and settlers, they would have been back in Ontario and Illinois in a heartbeat if they heard and believed in wind chills.

The whole concept is wrong. It is built on the notion of wind hitting bare skin. Who does that? You don’t wear your T shirt when shoveling the front sidewalk at zero. You don’t run around looking for the morning paper buck naked do you? Well, then you are not experiencing wind chill.

I have fought this outrageous concept for at least fifty years and readily admit, I am not getting anywhere.

So, don’t you get hoodwinked. Remember those same wind chill people bring you the dreaded daylight savings time as well!

The fact is that just looking at temperatures as they really are, it is bad enough living in Montana. Leave the wind chill for those New Jersey people!