Local Gossip--Consider the Source or Lack Thereof

      One of the permanent features of small town living is gossip. In a big city if somebody tells you something, you don't know the person or their story anyway; no surprise your response is, “Yeah, so what?” Here, folks pump for details.

       Local gossip has it that Kalmes Club 528 is closing. I would be one of the first to know, if it were because that would be the end of my little part-time, weekend gig. A fallacious story may arise from the owners occasionally lamenting slow nights, but it is not true. However, people may make it true if they eat out every weekend at chains like Olive Garden & Texas Road House.

      Sometimes, tho' gossip comes out of a vacuum. Wednesday, in Dubuque I checked with both the County Attorney and Sheriff's Dept. on the fate of Toby Donovan. They were remarkably niggardly with info and would only say that he is a resident of the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale, Iowa. I recall visiting my mother there in the late fifties, when she had tuberculosis. We have mostly eradicated TB, but it seems proliferated criminality!

      Toby's parole was revoked on 23 May, and he has been at IMCC since. The spokesperson explained the facility “assesses treatment needs and determines where the individual should be—Fort Madison, Fort Dodge, Newton or another facility.”

     When I expressed surprise at the length of time was taking, she was defensive and resistant to telling me anything more.

The lesson here is to cast a critical eye on gossip and consider the source or lack thereof.