A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
It must have seemed simple to the Veterans Administration bureaucrat in charge of measurement, at least at first. A new law allows veterans living more than 40 miles from a VA facility to see private physicians instead of VA physicians. The distance, the bureaucrat decreed, would be the great circle distance. Just draw a circle with a 40-mile radius around all VA facilities. Only veterans living outside the circle could see private physicians.
What veterans just inside the circles saw, of course, was red. For example, if a veteran just inside the circle had to drive first to the east, and then the same distance to the south, to reach the VA facility at the center of the circle, the driving distance was 56.6 miles. Instead of measuring the 40 miles as the crow flies, veterans wanted the 40 miles measured by a jeep’s odometer.
That made sense, and the VA just announced it would measure the magic distance in road runner miles instead of crow flying miles. In some cases, that reduces the crow’s flying distance to 28.3 miles. VA press release.
As for the bureaucrat who didn’t see this coming, let me suggest replacing him with someone who understands the Pythagorean Theorem, who knows that veterans drive to see their physicians, and who prefers not to choke on crow.