A Cool Drink Of Water

This, we all know, is the crazy part of the year for PCOs. The we'd-better-make-it-now-or-we-won't-make-it season. The time, as a mentor of mine is fond of saying, when "you gotta fish or cut bait." We know that during this peak season many of you put aside one or several issues of the magazine for a rainy day, for some quiet time, so you can sit and commune with us and do us justice. We respect that. I'd like to direct your attention, though, to an item that deserves your attention, even during mid-July. If you do have a moment to read anything in this issue now before you toss it on the stack, please don't miss "DDT: The Rise of the Wonder Insecticide," which begins on page 26.

PCT staff correspondent Bob Berns has been one of our favorite writers here for a long time. The level of research, scholarship, experience and energy he brings to his articles often astounds us. Perhaps never, though, to the degree that it did with "DDT." The first installment of this two-part series which commemorates the 50th anniversary of that storied insecticide's full introduction into the U.S. marketplace is a cool drink of water. It harks back to a simpler time, a time before Silent Spring, before chlordane and Alar and environmania, a time when most Americans were more optimistic, when we thought that with elbow grease and esprit de corps and ingenuity and the wonders of science we could accomplish anything. And with good reason: The economy was kicking into high gear and we had just finished, thanks to teamwork and technology, wiping an abominable evil off the face of the earth.

"No insecticide before or since has been invested with more history, drama, promise, and eventual disappointment," Berns writes, then proceeds to chronicle DDT's fascinating rise and fall.

So take a second, sit down and have a drink. And know this: Part 2 next month is even better.