Remember a while back when there was a rash of hoax items put up for sale on eBay? First someone tried to auction off a slightly used kidney. Then someone else put a baby up for sale. The next thing you knew there was a brain being offered to the highest bidder. (I have to admit I did bid on that one. After all, I could tell it was a good deal since it obviously hadn’t been used much.) Through all of this there were newspaper articles and TV stories about it everywhere, each one asking the burning question, "Why are people doing this?"

     I didn’t go to journalism school but I did take one course in high school, which makes me as much of an expert on this as anyone. I remember being taught that a good story answers the questions: who, what, when, where, and how. Maybe they need to update this and start asking themselves: "Who didn’t know that?"

     Thus, short stories are the perfect literary form. They’re concise, they don’t have many characters to keep track of, and you can finish one in about the same time it takes to dry your Ricky Martin T-shirt in the microwave. Duh!

     But wait, there’s more! A consulting firm recently released a survey that said people who shop online do it primarily for convenience. Wow! I could have sworn they did it because they were on a diet and wanted to avoid the temptation of Mrs. Fields’ and Cinnabon at the mall. Another study just out says teenagers who drink or use drugs are more likely to be sexually active. Incredible! Who would have imagined that alcohol and drugs would loosen anyone up?

     Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the media always asks stupid questions. In fact, sometimes they ask very intelligent ones. The problem then is they have to be careful who they pose them to, especially when there are people like presidential candidate George W. Bush around, a man whose primary talent seems to be coming up with stupid answers to perfectly good questions.