John Robb: "Why not include the option to author e-mails as an outline?"

My wife is registering her truck today. That requires a trip to the Town Hall. The Town Clerk types up the form, you write a check to the state, you write one to the town, and then you get new stickers to put on your plates. Pretty easy.

Except when you've recently changed your name -- here's where the stupidity part kicks in. The old registration is under her maiden name. The new registration needs to be under her married name. They need a certified marriage certificate to be able to process the name change. They have the certificate on file. Five feet away from the counter. But they need a certified copy, which my wife didn't bring with her. And they can't just find the one in the filing cabinet. And it would cost $12 to get a new one made up.

Correction: this process requires two trips to Town Hall.