The QT: Mongolian neo-Nazis, the irreplaceability of oil, and more

News Headline: "Ted Nugent: I might run for president in 2016"

Has it been 452 days since Nugent promised he would "either be dead or in jail by this time next year" if voters re-elected President Obama?

Not that anyone's counting.

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News Headline: "5 dead in Quebec oil train explosions, scores missing"

News Headline: "Three years after oil spill, slow recovery haunts Kalamazoo River"

News Headline: "Oil can never be replaced with alternative energy"

Not in some ways, no.

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William Ferry, a Lafayette., La., reader, writes:

"On the radio, a report on flooding in British Columbia said the streets in Calgary had become 'virtual waterways.' Would a chicken-wire canoe be sufficient for a virtual waterway?"

Only if the waterway is literally virtual.

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News Headline: "Former Republican senator: Tea Party is destroying the GOP"

Yes. But is there a downside?

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News Headline: "Connecticut launches 18-month transportation visioning process"

Kids, go get grandpa and ask him what it was like when governments made plans instead of launching visioning processes.

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The Case for the San Andreas Fault:

The Long Beach, Calif., City Council will consider an ordinance to ban the playing of music by summer ice cream trucks because music from summer ice cream trucks creates a "nuisance."

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News Headline: "New date set for end of life on Earth — in 2 billion years"

Plan accordingly.

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News Headline: "Mongolian neo-Nazis rebrand themselves as environmentalists"

In other news, there are Mongolian neo-Nazis.

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QT Grammar R Us Seminar on the English Language:

Bill Savage, an Evanston, Ill., reader, regarding QT's mention that the plural of computer mouse is computer mouses, writes:

"You call to mind the fact that NHL players from Toronto are Maple Leafs, not Maple Leaves. And if a couple of Maple Leafs are casually reading a book on botany that they borrowed and then abandon it, could we say the Leafs had no leave to leave the book on leaves they leafed through?"

Yes.

The plural of tenderfoot is tenderfoots, by the way.

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Write to QT at zaysmith.qt@gmail.com

QT appears Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.