Today's Opinions

Is there any cure for language purists of my ilk? Will I/we ever be able to relax, irrespective of the knowledge that somewhere in the world public signs with misspellings abound?

Being a newly dubbed strait-laced language cop, I get it back twice as hard as I give. I parade around commenting on other people’s typos, but when something I write, and by extension, something that appears in the Optic, has a glaring error, we catch it (the scorn, not the error).

How does it feel, Art?

A couple of examples:

The Dec. 26 paper had an article titled “PRC expands solar Incentives.” Solar, wind, alternative energy — we need to move in this direction sooner rather than later, right?

The state Public Regulation Commission now requires PNM to pay (or better credit) businesses 15 cents per kilowatt hour they produce via solar, whereas the incentive for homes remains at 13 cents per kilowatt hour. Now, why is that? Is the solar power generated by businesses on their roofs somehow more valuable than the solar power generated on my residential roof?

SANTA FE — There is much we don’t know about Gov. Bill Richardson’s withdrawal of his nomination to be secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department.

One thing we do know is that I’ve already missed on one of my 2009 predictions. I said 2009 would be as unpredictable as 2008. That was easy, considering all the stuff coming down these days.