I find typos in nearly every press release I receive.
I get a lot of press releases, so I see a lot of typos.
But some stand out.
For example, consider this piece I received today from the Roy Moore campaign:
Judge Roy Moore; Former Chief Justice of Alabama qualified with the Alabama Republican Party today at high noon at the RSA Plaza for the top Job of Alabama.
Judge Moore stated “I am looking forward to leading the State of Alabama into a new decadeOf Growth and Property”.
The major polls show Judge Moore more has a strong lead over the other Republican candidates.
Let’s play a game. Count the typos you see in this release. Post your guess as a comment to this article, e-mail it to me (jefoster1 AT bellsouth DOT net) or tweet it to me (@jefoster) by 9 a.m. Friday.
If you win, I’ll publicly extol your grammatical virtues in this space and maybe come up with some other kind of goofy prize.
The point of this is not just to have a bit of fun at Judge Moore’s expense (though, OK, maybe that’s part of it).
Folks, we’re talking about someone who wants to be the governor of this state. He wants to take on Alabama’s problems, big and small. He’s asking us to have confidence that he is competent to advance creative solutions to those problems.
In my humble opinion, having someone putting out coherent statements on his behalf is the least he can do.
It’s about the extraordinary marriage of Mitchell and Mattie Atkins, which began in 1930.
He’s 97; she’s 103. But they are still taking care of each other.
“She was the prettiest thing in the whole world,“ said Mr. Atkins, 97, known in his family as Daddy Mitch. “And she’s still the loveliest.“
Wheelchair bound with crippling arthritis, Mrs. Atkins, 103, is almost completely deaf. She can hear when a daughter shouts right into her ear. So, on Thursday, Ronye Smaller leaned close and repeated her father’s words.
A smile spread over Mrs. Atkins’ face, moving from eyes to lips. “He’s a joy to be around.“ she said, then joked about her husband’s kisses.
“I find no fault in him, except he always comes up by me slobbering on me.“
You have to read the whole piece to appreciate all they’ve been experienced together. For example, they’ve lived in the same house since 1945.
Asked for marital advice, Mrs. Atkins said the key “is treat your husband like you want him to treat you and make sure you have two rolling pins—keep one on his head and the other to roll out the dough.“
Nothing, they both said, is more important than prayer, love and unity. That, and a little kissing on the sofa, when the children aren’t around. “She’d sit in my lap, sit right here and kiss and go on,“ he said.
“Love, love, love each other,“ she added. “It’s beautiful, beautiful to be old and still be in love at our age.“
If you are a regular reader here, you have heard me refer to my friend Kris and the great work he does over at The World Around You.
Kris and I are fellow politicos; he is a bit left of center, and I am a bit right of center. Neither of us is far enough off of center, if you ask the folks in power—but that has been a source of a lot of discussion between us: We feel that people mostly in the middle, people like us, are being done a disservice because the system is set up to cater to the relative few on the fringes.
Whatever our policy disagreements (and we do have some), Kris and I share a strong belief that if we are going to see solutions to the problems we face in our country, then political discourse is going to have to change. We are going to have to listen to each other, find common ground and work—really work—at building on those areas of consensus to advance better policy and create a better government.
With that in mind, a couple of weeks ago, Kris messaged me and asked if I’d be interested in doing a podcast with him. The idea would be to take an unvarnished look at the events of the previous week in Alabama politics, discuss them from our respective points of view and preview the week ahead. I thought it was a great idea. It isn’t like anything else out there. And it isn’t a purely partisan undertaking.
He took the initative on pulling it together, working out the technical bugs and making it happen, and I’m pleased to present you with the first results of those efforts below. In the future, we hope to interview candidates for political office and welcome guests who have interesting things to tell you about politics in Alabama.
I hope you enjoy our inaugural podcast! Your feedback is welcome!
The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spent $32,000 of tax money on 70,000 copies that offer information on how to prepare drugs carefully and care for veins to avoid infection ...
The 16-page booklet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers such advice as “Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins,“ and “Find the vein before you try to inject.“
OMW. A government guide to doing drugs?
You want outrage? City Hall’s got outrage.
“This is a tremendous misuse of city funds, and I’m going to see what I can do to stop it,“ Democratic New York City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. told the New York Post. “It’s sick.“
... The state’s top official with the Drug Enforcement Administration calls the “Take Charge Take Care” guide a “step-by-step instruction on how to inject a poison.“
Wait! There’s more! The story reports that a health official says the goal is to promote health and save lives, don’cha know.
“Assistant Commissioner Daliah Heller says instructions on how to perform injections were included because there’s ‘a less harmful way to inject.‘“
Brring!! Brring!! Hello, Stupid Police? You’re needed in NYC.
Meet responding officer and DEA special agent-in-charge John Gilbride. He says the handout is disturbing.
“It concerns me that the city would produce a how-to on using drugs,“ Gilbride told the Post. “Heroin is extremely potent. You may only get the chance to use it once. To suggest there is a method of using that alleviates the dangers, that’s very disturbing.“
DUH. You’d think that the assistant health commissioner would know that.
And that, folks, is this week’s edition of You Can’t Fix Stupid.
Twitter updates from Jennifer at 
