Even panic must give way to reason

That's what I told someone last night at a gas station.

Starting yesterday, people up in Putnam County started going crazy that there would be no more gas. Like an unfounded run on a bank, there was in fact enough underlying commodity to meet normal demand, but people's panic brought the business down.

There was plenty of gas, and no lines, at exit 7 on I-84, where we were headed anyway to kill time and get hot food at Stew Leonard's.

City residents aren't en masse going to go as far as Danbury, Brookfield and New Milford. Maybe a few will be so irrational, but most won't, since it costs too much gasoline and time just to get a bit of gas. So many people are gullible enough to believe what they see on the news, such as one evening program showing a picture of someone siphoning gas from his SUV to use in his generator. That wasn't "desperation" as the news claimed -- that was simple practicality. That man wasn't going to spend a few gallons of gas when he had extra right at home.