I'm reading drafts of my freshman writers' research essays, which are more interesting than usual and mostly pretty well done. Somehow I managed to impress upon most of my students the importance of using reputable sources, but I got a pretty big laugh out of the way one student cited one of his sources: he interpreted "Opec Secretariat" as the name of the author. This is almost as brilliant as a previous student who interpreted "Regina, Saskatchewan" as a reporter's name.
Of course, given the current trend toward peculiar baby names, it's only a matter of time before some poor infant gets tagged with one of these names--and then what if they later meet and marry? Opec and Regina Saskatchewan-Secretariat: the cost of ink for the invitations would be outrageous, and their adorable children Opie and Reggie will be mercilessly hounded by classmates envious of their unusual monikers.
Let's just put a stop to this right here and now. OPEC is an organization and Regina is a city, and I'm not aware of any locale where marriage between two such incompatible forces would be permitted.
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