The ways we put things always gets through my serious side, and although I worked for many years in the legal field, I never can repress a snort when someone sends “the papers for your execution.” Then you’re supposed to sign them in front of some witnesses or a notary! My mom didn’t have anyone that foolish!

Do you have any favorite unconsciously funny ways of expressing things? Or favorite gaffes, like a local dance studio that put up a sign announcing the dates for the coming “Spring Rectal”?

An editorial in Tuesday’s New York Times praises as “A Step Toward Fairness” a ridiculous new proposal from the Obama administration that will keep a number of Guantanamo prisoners in legal limbo with no hope of a real judicial hearing on their status. At the same time, it appears that there will be no effort to close Guantanamo, now approaching more than a year past Obama’s target for closing it. Little wonder, then, that Tuesday’s Times also reports that erstwhile rival insurgent groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area now seem to be setting rivalries aside to attack US interests. Keeping Guantanamo open only feeds such hatred against the US that rivals will team up.