Normally it’s the Pentagon insisting on keeping something secret and outsiders spilling the beans. This time it was an Army Lt. Col. named Bryan Hilferty, stationed at the Pentagon and resident of Alexandria, who was asking an outside agency to reveal what they had decided was a secret. Those secrets being, of course, the Little League rules of play.
Nope, really not kidding.
I missed this story when it ran in the Post in late July, but caught a mention of it in this week’s This is True mailing. True’s editor Randy Cassingham always attaches amusing quotes to his stories of the implausible and inane, but this one doesn’t really need it.
It seems that some years ago parents of players who were injured in non-league games where league rules were used had taken to suing Little League. So the league decided to restrict the circulation of its rules on a need-to-know basis, a concept with which Hilferty was intimately familiar. “I have a secret clearance,” he mused, “I work in the E-ring of the Pentagon, but I don’t have clearance for the Little League rules.”
You should read the whole thing, it’s mind-boggling how some organizations can talk themselves into thinking that if a problem exists then something has to be done in response to it… no matter how inane.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
