Grammar rules!

Ever think typos aren't important? Oh, people will know what I meant even if I didn't dot all the I's and cross all the T's? Well, take a look at the mess the Arkansas state legislature has to clean up. It all began when an extra "not" crept into a law on the age of consent. Here's the story, as reported by Andrew DeMillo of The Associated Press:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A law passed this year allows Arkansans of any age — even infants — to marry if their parents agree, and the governor may call a special session to fix the mistake, lawmakers said Friday.

The legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry but also allow pregnant teenagers who are younger to marry with parental consent, bill sponsor Rep. Will Bond said. An extraneous "not" in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if parents allow it.

So Arkansas got worldwide headlines when DeMillo's story was picked by AP members who couldn't resist it. The Seattle Times' was typical: "Law lets even babies marry with parents' OK."

AP's original headline was probably something like this: "Mistake in Ark. law allows toddlers to marry with parental OK." Several papers and TV stations, starting with The Commercial in Pine Bluff, Ark., used that headline Friday. And The Boston Globe, ABC News and The Guardian in London, England, had, "Mistaken Ark. law would let toddlers wed."

Other headlines: "State allows babies to marry ... with parental consent" -- USA Today. "Arkansas accidentally cuts legal age to wed to nearly zero" -- The Statesman-American in Austin, Tex. "Arkansas law lets toddlers tie the knot!" in The Times of India. I don't know if that's pun on the extra "not" or not. But how about this in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette? "Deletion of ‘not’ in marriage-age law knotted up."

Not the image you want to project of your state, or your legislature! (And that "not" belongs where it is.)

Here's how it happened. With the extra word, the law reads like this: "In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."

Well, think about it. Babies are under 18, and they're rarely pregnant. So all they need is parental consent. Right? So a code-revision commission -- which fixes typographical and technical errors in laws -- tried to correct the mistake, but The Arkansas Legislative Council ruled Friday the commission went beyond its powers.

"You're either pregnant or you're not pregnant," said Sen. Dave Bisbee, a Republican. "Rarely will that be a typographical error."

Bisbee is a quotable guy, by the way. Here's what he told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette before the legislative council met Friday:

“Did your mother explain to you the difference between being pregnant and not being pregnant ? It’s not technical,” he said in an interview.

Arkansas lawmakers are worried about having the state become a pedophile magnet (which seems unlikely to me but not something I'd want on my resume if I were a co-sponsor of the age-of-consent bill). Me, I'm worried about all the poor slobs who were supposed to be proofreading bills before the House and Senate passed them and the governor signed them. How did they let this one slip by? Are their next jobs going to be with Wendy's or Burger King?