Almost by accident: How newspaper stories often teach more than we expect

I think that from time to time, it is instructive to summon my inner Sydney J. Harris (“Things I learned on the way to looking up something else”) and point out how much we can learn about a subject from reading newspaper stories about something else.

The last couple of days have provided some good grist for this line of exploration.

Let’s start with our Mick Zawislak’s story Tuesday describing how Lake County sheriff’s deputies captured three men allegedly in the process of stealing a piece of construction equipment. The first interesting bit was in how the men were discovered. They had failed to return a rented flatbed trailer on time. The owner had a GPS device installed on the trailer, called 911 with the location of the trailer and deputies found the men at work, according to a press release. One of them attempted to run. He was caught on a security camera, and, in a sort of detective-story piece de resistance, the department police dog tracked him until he was found a mile and half away.

So, three lessons: One, rental agencies wisely use technology to monitor the equipment they lend. Two (this one not so surprising anymore), companies monitor construction sites with security cameras. And three, a German Shepherd can track a person for at least a mile and a half.

Plus one ancillary insight: Crime fighting may increasingly rely on use of high-tech gadgetry, but the analog assistance of a human handler and the nose of a well-trained police dog still plays an important role.

Sometimes a lesson buried in a story isn’t exactly unrelated to its main idea but still may be surprising to learn. Take the wire story we published in Wednesday’s sports section about the U.S. team’s World Cup loss to Belgium. The story included some long discourse about the controversy that had arisen when FIFA reversed a previous game red card on Folarin Balogun after a call from President Donald Trump to the federation’s head.

The story notes that, somewhat contrary to general public speculation, infractions similar to Balogun’s “have gone unpunished at this World Cup” involving other star players. And it goes on to recount a history of convenient looks the other way against elite soccer players, leaving one to conclude that soccer’s integrity problem is at least larger and more complicated than Trump’s seeming attempt at interference.

Other situations are far less controversial but still intriguing. Returning to the theme of technology’s role in solving problems today, our Christopher Placek describes in Wednesday’s news section how a potentially serious fire was summarily snuffed out in seven minutes. A gas fire had ignited on a cooking grill at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. The sprinkler system went to work almost immediately and an the activated fume hood shut off the gas supply to other appliances.

The Business story we published Wednesday by Naperville Sun writer Carolyn Stein continued the theme of technological advances, describing the increasing use of a robotic manicuring device. Such a story is a lesson in itself as it describes how a technology works, but it went further to show just how long and far the designers had to go to move their invention from a room-sized device that couldn’t fit through a door to a functioning piece of equipment that can realistically be expected to one day be available for at-home use.

Another ancillary insight: If that happens, to whom will women turn for a “Madge” to provide the kind of self-care insights like using Palmolive dish detergent to soften their hands?

And this final thought: Our Food section Wednesday was filled with unexpected lessons — from Instagram blogger Biz Valentini’s demonstration of simple baking recipes even a novice can handle to columnist Don Mauer’s description of a process for making macaroni salad at home. But, alas, the notable surprise lesson for me started with just a hint. One of Valentini’s recipes was for a “blueberry galette.” I had to go elsewhere (thank you, internet) to learn that a galette is a particular type of flat, round pastry. And on the way to learning that, I discovered the Norman origin of the word — which is gale, meaning “flat cake.”

It was a bit of a twist on Sydney J. Harris’ theme, but I still think he would be proud.

Whatever the case, look just a little below the surface of the stories you read into today’s paper and see if you don’t find several similar examples of situations where you’ve become smarter about life and what’s in it almost by accident.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is available at eckhartzpress.com.