I can recall writing a more than slightly hysterical editorial on the subject at the time for that leading scientific journal, the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial. It would be remembered to this day if I'd had the wit, or maybe just merchandising savvy, to head it "An Inconvenient Truth." Nobody ever went broke overestimating the American public's capacity for panic.

Naturally, the Heinz Foundation would later give Paul Ehrlich and the Mrs. a Lifetime Achievement Award or some such, complete with a check for $250,000. The disaster-predicting business does have its upside. I expect Paul Krugman to get his Nobel in economics any year now.

As for whether Connie Meskimen meant his letter to the editor to be taken seriously, I suspect he-not she, as so many of those who reacted to the letter assumed-was out have some serious fun.

Counselor Meskimen is said to conduct these Rorschach tests for the depths of American gullibility from time to time, and he hasn't hit bottom yet. We seem to have an oceanic capacity for mistaken assumptions.

I've lost count by now of the oh-so-serious inquiries from graduate students and members of science faculties, including one or two at Ivy League universities, who have asked whether the letter writer was serious. These people wouldn't be able to detect satire if it showed up under their microscopes.

Then there were the folks here in Arkansas, image-conscious as ever, who were infuriated that we'd publish such a letter, fearing it would leave the impression that Arkies are a bunch of scientific ignoramuses. As opposed, I guess, to all those literal-minded, sober-sided, absolutely humorless scientific twits who were appalled by the letter and eager to set the writer straight.

Inky Wretch