Please don't call it a "no-brainer"!

I'm not a superstitious person, aside from taking a few prudent precautions. Like throwing spilled salt over my left shoulder. And crossing myself when a black cat crosses my path. And not rocking an empty chair. Then there's the one about sitting down before you leave if you go back into the house because you forgot something. And knocking on wood. And the thing about pennies found on the ground being good luck if they're heads up.

But that's it.

But, as I've observed here more than once, I will admit to one sure bringer of bad luck: using the term "no-brainer" to describe a desirable public policy option for West Virginia. In my experience, those are the hardest things to get done.

That's why I felt like engaging in any number of rituals to undo the potential damage when an otherwise right on editorial in the Gazette-Mail used that dreaded expression to talk about a common sense child nutrition bill.

The bill in question is House Bill 162, one of the more (or only?) rational things to come out of the special session of the legislature this summer on "education betterment." It would basically require counties to assess summer and out of school food programs for children and report this to the Office of Child Nutrition.

This simple bill would make it easier for people to find needed assistance and also possibly nudge some counties into doing more to take up the slack.

It passed the house unanimously, but didn't make it through the senate. Under the weird rules of this stage of  the special session, which is dormant at the moment, the senate could reconvene to take up bills that have passed the house but no new items.

Reconvening to pass this little bill would be...perhaps something that does not require an undue amount of cerebral agitation.

Just don't use the fatal words!