The QT: America's libraries-to-McDonald's ratio, flesh-eating rebels, and more

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

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.

***

QT Department of Remaining Straws We Can Grasp At:

There are still more public libraries in the United States than McDonald's outlets.

Just barely.

***

+ 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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

News Headline: "Boy, 9, found loaded Glock in movie theater bathroom"

As envisioned by the Founding Fathers when they framed the Second Amendment.

***

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.

***

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.