Chance of Rain Publisher Emily Green

How Mad Cow Disease Changed My Life

Emily Green is publisher and editor of the website Chance of Rain. Previously, she was a staff writer for The Independent and The New Statesman in the U.K. and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Before participating in a panel on how much water should cost, she talked mad cow disease, the proper spelling of “check,” and sewage treatment in Las Vegas in the Zócalo green room.

Q:

What did you want to be when you grew up?


A:

Writer.


Q:

What does your ideal Sunday morning look like?


A:

It’s raining.


Q:

What was the most important year of your life?


A:

1996. I was living in London and reporting on agriculture, and it was the year that mad cow disease erupted in people, and I saw the enormity and strangeness and wildness of the way we react to disasters when we haven’t prepared, and how crazy things can become. How smart people can behave in very kind of stupid and almost medieval ways. Though that’s probably a discredit to the Middle Ages.


Q:

When did you last get a traffic ticket?


A:

I was on San Vicente, and a friend of mine had just broken up with his girlfriend, and he was very, very blue, and I felt I needed to rush over with a bottle of wine. Luckily I hadn’t drunk it yet, and I was pulled over for speeding.


Q:

Do you have a favorite Britishism?


A:

Yes: We should spell cheque with a que not a ck. It confuses me every time I see it spelled ck because that means check mark. I mean there are lots of redundancies Webster’s can have, but I really resent check.


Q:

What teacher or professor, if any, changed your life?


A:

My ninth grade English teacher, Mr. Lewis. He was extraordinarily tough, and you did your best for him. And you were never quite sure, even once you’d done your best, if you couldn’t have done better. He made you really try, and if you failed, he made you fail better—try over. He was really an excellent teacher. I think I learned more in his class than I did in almost the rest of my education. He really taught you how to think. Very demanding.


Q:

What salad dressing best embodies you?


A:

Oil and vinegar.


Q:

What’s your favorite under-the-radar spot in Las Vegas, where you’ve spent a lot of time reporting?


A:

The Richard Bunker sewage treatment plant near Henderson.


Q:

What’s your favorite body of water?


A:

That’s tough. That’s like choosing between children. I’m going to say my bathtub.


Q:

If you had to give up one of your five senses, which would you choose?


A:

Touch. Because the others are more immediate to me.