The QT: America's libraries-to-McDonald's ratio, flesh-eating rebels, and more
A veteran journalist, tongue firmly in cheek, riffs on the latest headlines

News Headline: "Company allows you to tweet extraterrestrials"
As the Intergalactic Planetary Federation decides in emergency session that the termination of Earth can be put off no longer.
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News Headline: "Putin: West arming Syrian rebels who eat human flesh"
No one said our Syria policy didn't need tweaking.
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QT Department of Remaining Straws We Can Grasp At:
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
There are still more public libraries in the United States than McDonald's outlets.
Just barely.
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+ A.D., a Concord, Calif., reader, regarding QT's mention that Sarah Palin at Fox News was a case of palling around with errorists, writes:
"Like all the Liberal Loons, you..."
+ R.C., a Cherry Hill, N.J., reader, writes:
"You are an idiot !!!!!!!!"
OK. Now we have a dialogue started.
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News Headline: "Idaho GOPer fears gay employees will come 'into work in a tutu' "
Turnabout is fair play.
The Idaho GOPer can always to come to work in a dunce cap.
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News Headline: "McDonald's increasingly enormous menu"
News Headline: "Pay-by-weight airline adds XL class"
It isn't easy in this complicated world to determine causes and effects.
Well. Not always.
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News Headline: "American workers losing ground on wages"
News Headline: "American workers see less vacation time than workers in other countries"
News Headline: "Majority of American workers are not engaged in their jobs"
Then again, as causes and effects go, this seems a fairly easy day.
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News Headline: "Boy, 9, found loaded Glock in movie theater bathroom"
As envisioned by the Founding Fathers when they framed the Second Amendment.
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QT Grammar R Us Seminar on the English Language:
Larry Rand, a Chicago reader, regarding another reader's mention that Marseilles, Ill., is pronounced mahr-SAYLS, wants you to know that Goethe Street in Chicago is pronounced GO-thee.
And Jim Kehoe, a Sydney, Australia, reader, wants you to know that the Australian city of Cairns is pronounced CANS.
Kabul rhymes with "hobble," by the way.
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Write to QT at zaysmith.qt@gmail.com
QT appears Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Zay N. Smith is a Chicago writer. Before starting the QT column he worked at the Chicago Sun-Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent and writer of major features. He has also worked as a bartender, having played a key role in the 1978 Mirage Tavern investigation, in which the newspaper operated an undercover bar to document the breaking of many laws by many officials.
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