Stupid is as stupid does

Jack Shafer of Slate admits that he doesn't know everything about meth:

... I ridiculed as "stupid" this news story... about "meth heads" who... "sit in the bush with hundreds of parts just fiddling with them all day." Proving that I, too, should search the medical literature before cracking jokes about meth coverage, I received a polite e-mail... inform(ing) me of the neurological concept of "punding," the restless and repetitive assembling and disassembling of mechanical devices (watches, carburetors, radios), the obsessive lining-up of small objects, or the picking at one's own skin.

That was a joke? Predictable of Shafer to have called "stupid" that which he doesn't understand. "Punding." A good word to add to my vocabulary, as in "I have clients and neighbors who go in for punding stereos and lawn-mowers."

But, to give the old devil his due, it's decent of Jack Shafer to give some credit to some journalists who really do know more about meth than he does...

... don't, don't, don't write a column inch on the subject before you read the Oregonian's comprehensive methamphetamine package from head to toe. That's not a blanket endorsement of the Oregonian's work, but it's close. Steve Suo and the other Oregonian journalists who worked on it are intellectually honest and intrepid reporters... Suo disputes critics who say the extent of meth use has been overstated...

... even if it took Shafer twelve days to link to Suo's critique. If you're at all interested in this subject, you ought to check Suo out.

(Regular A&C readers (you, you, that other p.d., and the one prosecutor who's been lurking) already know about this great Oregonian series, because I shared it with you back in February.)