I think I took a little piece of a young woman’s innocense today. One of our interns is helping me with a PowerPoint presentation in which I have to “make fun” of all the states for the NTPAW convention ODOT is hosting this year. Well, I asked her to look up some trivia for me at www.dumb.com/laws and www.50states.com. I showed her the kind of things I’d been able to use, telling her we couldn’t use anything too raunchy or really mean.

So, a few hours later she sends me an MS Word document with her collected triva in it. Okay, we come to Oklahoma and she’s included the law that says you cannot put the hind legs of any animal into your boots. So, I figure she’s just doing a cut-and-paste. Then I get to Wyoming and she has a note that says:

(Steve, Wyoming has less than half a million people. They don’t need dumb laws.)
The state motto is “Wyoming, where men are men and sheep are scared.” (I don’t really get it, but it doesn’t seem too crude.)

Ah, to be young and have a clean mind. No, I didn’t have a clean mind when I was young. And yes, I’d heard of being sheep dipped by the time I was 20. Anyway, I sent her an e-mail suggesting she think of that motto and lonely sheep farmers while having a look at Leviticus 20:15. She’d already left for the day, though. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if I’ve shattered her mind.

I have a couple of reviews to share with ya. I missed Maggie Bonham’s review of Murdered by Human Wolves in The Sci-Fi Traveling Road Show #2. This is a podcast and the book reviews are close to the end. It’s a good review, and the first oral review I’ve heard of any of my books. Maggie will be interviewing me at Conestoga for a future podcast.

The other review is of the e-book version of Seven Days in Benevolence. It’s in the new issue of Hellnotes and is written by Nick Cook. I think he liked it. Yeah, it’s mostly positive, but he does point out some flaws that I do have to agree with. Good job, Nick! (Although, Benevolence is in Oklahoma, not Ohio.)