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I concluded the correction with: "And Mrs Stump also asked us to point out that she is a bitch."

Within a few minutes of the apology story being placed in the editor's in-tray, he was at my desk, red-faced and waving the piece of paper at me.

And there was I thinking the editor was going to tell me off for starting a sentence with a conjunction.

He was nearly as mad at me for calling a reader a bitch as when I killed off the wrong person in a funeral report.

But that doesn't help me today.

Talking of killing off, the true story this week about the convicted murderer in Virginia who could now face execution because his IQ has gone beyond the ‘retard' cut-off, sounded promising.

Even more so when lawyers argued that Daryl R. Atkins had got cleverer only because of the stimulation of years of legal proceedings.

I guess it proves that a little learning is a dangerous thing...

... And before Mr Moral Guardian, of Compton, writes to protest about columnists making sick jokes, I'd like to finish said sick joke by adding...

...but a lot of learning is even worse; is it right for smart people to decide how clever you have to be before they can kill you?

Maybe I should steer clear of the death penalty.

In which case I need a story and I need it quickly.

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