Dear colleagues,

Today, the Las Vegas Sun reproduced a letter written by the husband of
the wife with whom Senator Ensign was having an affair.  The husband
sent the letter to a reporter at Fox News.  

The entire letter is here: 
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/19/text-husbands-letter/

There are all kinds of reasons to find the letter interesting, but I'm
struck by the number of sic's. The Sun notes it did not correct any of
the grammar and spelling.  I assume the letter was proofread and the
writer is a college graduate.   Here are some examples from the letter:

. . . 

The unethical behavior and immoral choice of Senator Ensign has been
confronted by me and others on a number of occasions over this past
year. In fact one of the confrontations took place in February 2008 at
his home in Washington DC (sic) with a group of his peers. One of the
attendee’s (sic) was Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma as well as several
other men who are close to the Senator.

. . . . 

Today, Senator Ensign’s responsibility and stature have increased within
the US (sic) Senate. His is currently the head of “Policy” for the
Republican Party, the number four position within the Parties (sic)
leadership team. We on the other hand are completely ruined and left to
deal with the aftermath of very evil and completely unjustifiable acts
by one of our countries (sic) top leaders.

*****

It looks to me that the good people at the Sun expect US Senate to be
U.S. Senate.  I'm struck by the green grocer 's and the plural for the
apostrophe.  

OK, we should not be just in the business of teaching surface grammar
error, but the number of such errors in a very important document
written by someone with a college education is interesting.

Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri

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