Today's contestants for the Made of Fail crown

- The local road department(s). I have in the past lightly mocked my southern brethren/sistren for going all wiggety-wack when there's the least little bit of snow on the ground, but my little section of the Midwest did not do any better this morning; the road that I take to work--not only a state highway, but also a major north-south artery in my town--was in effect one long skating rink, despite plenty of warning that the roads would ice up, and one of my coworkers who lives in a nearby city took two hours for what's usually a 40-minute drive. It's called salt, people, do you not remember it from, oh, last year?

- The McCain/Palin campaign. You'd think that someone would have gotten a clue from that thing with Palin's Yahoo email account being "hacked" by someone figuring out a ridiculously simple password reset clue, but you would be mistaken.