“NUMPTIES”

A Scottish reader informs me: “Numptie is a most useful term. It’s originally Scottish but seems to have spread south in recent years. It means a fool, a dolt, a cloddish moron. You’ll often find it used thus: “The problem with the Scottish parliament is that it is full of numpties.” (Surely the title for a novel: ‘A Confederacy of Numpties’?)”

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “You write: ‘I wonder why Bush-haters haven’t thought of this: that the way to punish Bush is to force him to live through the consequences of his own policies.’ Andrew, we ALL have to live with the consequences of Bush’s policies. And so do the Iraqi people. And so will future generations, if we don’t get spending under control.
I don’t ‘hate’ Bush (though I DO hate the way he’s mangled our fiscal and foreign policies), and as much as I’d love to see him squirm in a second term, I love America more. I’m voting Kerry. And if Kerry’s a disaster and the GOP nominates a grown-up in four years, I’ll vote to oust him too.” Don’t forget the Letters Page, where the smartest readers on the web take me on.