Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings Dear Mr. Mullings: Who proofreads your articles? Lynn I know there are typos after typos after typos. These are not my fault. I hired a kid named "Tommy" to be the Mullings Proofreader-in-Chief. He's deaf, dumb, and blind; but he plays a mean game of pinball. Dear Mr. Mullings: Wouldn�t it be neat if Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich ran together for President and Vice President? �Cause �Huck & Newt 2008� would make a great bumper sticker. Steve New Boston, TX I'll asked Newt about this, but I suspect, if he's interested at all, he will prefer "Newt & Huck 2008" Dear Mr. Mullings: Why do ambulances in our country sound so different from those in England and Germany? Was there some kind of arrangement agreed to early on? Hank San Antonio, TX I didn't look this up, but this is what I think: European Ambulances (and police cars) sound different from the siren wail of many US ambulances and police cars because of air raids. I am old enough to remember watching cartoons during the Korean war. When an ambulance or police car would be sounding its siren, the cartoon sound track was altered to play music. In London, for instance, the signal for an air raid in World War II needed to be different from the sound of emergency vehicles so civilians understood what they were hearing and how they needed to react. Dear Mr. Mullings: Why does the President release his speech or the "good parts" hours before the actual speech? For example, last week the President had a very important prime-time speech to discuss his change in tactics in Iraq. Everything was released before the speech so there was really no reason to watch it. Plus, the media and Democrats (redundant?) had hours to whack the President and his plan. James Denton, TX The State of the Union speech was probably the most widely briefed speech since ... ever. My briefing was at 4 PM in the Old Executive Office Building - five hours before the speech - and I got the distinct impression I was the only one who was hearing this stuff for the first time. The reality is: It is in the interests of the Administration to have both the chattering classes (people like me), the news media, and the Members of the House and Senate have a pretty good idea of what will be in the speech in time for them to be able to digest the broad outlines, to be able to comment on it with some insight, and to be able to talk about the parts they liked with specificity and the parts they didn't understanding the full sweep of the adress. Last one Dear Mr. Mullings: Isn't it time for the long-winded (Boring) version of the State of the Union speech to be delivered in writing and a concise version presented at the annual speech? Alan Concord, CA That may be the best idea anyone's had since 1913. See you next week. Rich Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings                                     Click here to return to the Secret Decoder Ring page Copyright © 2007 Barrington Worldwide, LLC