Speaking of Merkle, Let's Talk about Metro Public Works

The slang terms "bonehead" and "boner" are said to date back to 1908 and were specifically applied to Fred Merkle's infamous baserunning error.  The OED has 1912 as the earliest reference to a "boner" and quotes its use: "a blunder in the science of the game."

A group of us here in Salemtown found out last night that Metro Public Works pulled a boner in 2008 when someone there put our architects' streetscape design plans in "the wrong pile," thus causing months of delay in the already arduous MPW approval process. Thanks to some bureaucratic blockhead, our block grant moneys did not get spent as they were supposed to last fall, and the improvements that our community recommended last winter probably will not start until this spring.

I once believed that Metro Park's continued delays to a Morgan Park playground were the greatest Metro disservice to Salemtown. The latest boneheaded blunder of Public Works is pretty fracking close to that distinction in my mind now.