Small Worlds in a Truck

[James Brody]

It's 6:55am on July 18th: "Key West" called Bill Bennett's radio show, "Morning in America." (Bennett recognizes the glue that truckers give to traditional American culture: they frequently call him. And Bennett, former Drug Czar and Secretary of Education, frequently names the next town on the trucker's route!)

West reminded Bennett that two worlds exist in a truck cab: the front room contains two seats, a radio, controls, and a chain for the horn. The second room is behind the seats and a curtain and contains bunk, microwave, fridge, and television. Once the curtain is pulled, there is usually no talking through it.

Women, however, are the exception and talk through the curtain. West, who frequently has 12 hours in which to complete an 11-hour drive, complained "Women want to invade your world, men leave you alone."

Bennett is a traditionalist who swears that when husband and wife ride in a car, the husband is supposed to drive. He probably hasn't noticed swarms of Neons driven by young girls, their unemployed, DUI-penalized, uninsured, unshaven, drone in the passenger seat. Might be another point for Toynbee's vision of our decline. Gotta think about it some more.

JimB

Watts, D. & Strogatz, S. (1998) Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks. Nature. 393: 440-442.