Admit it. Don’t you sometimes wonder if all the sane people have left the planet, leaving you alone to carry on and bring order to the world?

For example, the other day when I was at work at the bakery, a woman brought a cake to me that had been stored in the freezer, and asked me with a straight face if the ice crystals that had formed on the cake would melt if she set the cake out for a while. Now I’ll admit I wanted to say something else, but I very nicely told her that in my vast experience, ice usually does melt at room temperature.

We all have our moments, including me, but I do wonder about some people. Usually it’s just something that’s stupid but harmless, like the cake thing.

What happens though when a lack of common sense or just plain stupidity may actually harm someone else?

Cases in point are the nuisance calls that come in every day to emergency 911 answer centers across the country. These call centers are manned by people trained to deal with life and death emergencies. Their sole purpose is to get help to people when they really need it. Silly me, I assumed anyone over the age of eight could understand that.

There have even been several reports of kids not much older than toddlers being able to make the call when the adults couldn’t. So, apparently, the kids have more sense than the adults when it comes to calling 911.

Call centers are being bombarded with frivolous calls that are overloading the system and frustrating officials. People have called in asking for help with their computers, to complain about cars parked in their driveways, that the neighbors weren’t keeping the grass cut, that their pizza was delivered late, that a salesperson was rude to them, or they just couldn’t find a phone number they needed.

Never mind that someone may be having a heart attack and need an ambulance or that a business might be being robbed and the police are needed.

Frivolous? No, this is flat out stupidity. These people don’t have the sense that God gave a goat. Every time that one of these calls is received, that person should be tracked down and threatened with jail and a huge fine.

Maybe that would sink into their brains. But on second thought I doubt it. It wouldn’t make sense to them.