Dear Readers: We are slap-up in the middle of the annual effort by law enforcement to stop drunken driving during the holidays. The campaign started on Dec. 18 and runs through Jan. 1.
What this means is that the Arkansas State Police, county sheriff offices and municipal police agencies will have extra officers on the state's highways to find and stop drunken drivers.
It's the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over operation. Surely -- exactly who is this Shirley? -- everyone with a driver's license is aware of this. If the Pentagon were in charge, it would be called overwhelming force. That is shock and awe, baby.
The only thing worse than getting pulled over while intoxicated would be having a crash while intoxicated. Or, worst of all, causing injury or fatality while intoxicated.
Remember:
It's never right to drink and drive.
See a drunken driver? Duty requires a call to law enforcement.
Take keys from a drunken friend. Find him a safe way home.
Dear Mahatma: Thanks for the column on window tinting. But what does it mean, practically? -- Tom from Texarkana
Dear Tom: Let's recap.
State law prohibits the over-tinting of vehicle windows. Law enforcement has a tool with which to measure the darkness of tint. If the limits are exceeded, a ticket may be issued. Without going to every traffic court in the state, we don't know how often such tickets are issued.
The practical effect of this column, it's hoped, is that folks will read it. And when they go to have their windows tinted, ensure the shop that does it follows the tinting rules.
Oh Exalted One: Your column on window tinting struck a chord. I find it frustrating to be unable to see the driver of a vehicle sharing the road with me. It seems so elementary for safety concerns that eye to eye contact of drivers be required, yet many times I find it impossible because of the deep tinting of their side windows. Is this what "cool" looks like? Keep up your soon-to-be Pulitzer Prize work. -- Jim
Dear Jim: Three things.
First, your comment on eye contact with fellow drivers is a good one. And with reasonable tint we can see when a fellow driver gives us what the Romans used to call "digits impudicus."
Second, we concede that a deep tint makes some vehicles look "cool," "wicked," full of "sang-froid," or eat up with "je ne sais quoi."
Third, the Pulitzer Committee wouldn't let this stuff in the door.
Dear Mahatma: My quilt club believes your reader, Generation Geezer, used the wrong verb when he wrote "I am eat up with teenagers." We maintain the verb is "to be ett up." -- Quilt Lady
Dear Lady: We learned the verb as "eat up" when living in Independence County. Also the expression "nuttier than a peach orchard boar."
So we're dancing with what brung us.
Fjfellone@gmail.com