'I Can't' T-shirts are hot

You knew this would happen. Since the controversy over a T-shirt slogan began last week at BYU and in local Mormondom, sales for the T-shirt have gone from two or three a day to 40-50.

Joe Herrera and partner Chad Ramos can't even meet all the demands for the shirt that says, "I can't. I'm Mormon."

All of which proves that bad publicity and good publicity add up to pretty much the same thing.

"The funny thing is, I don't even think we'll make any money off this," says Herrera, a returned missionary who sells real estate in Las Vegas. "We've got a long way to go just to break even."

"I can't. I lost my shirt on this shirt."

At least he hasn't lost his sense of humor, which is more than you can say for detractors. Omiheck, did you catch the fuss over those T-shirts last week? BYU yanked ads for the T-shirts from its student newspaper last week after students protested that "I can't. I'm Mormon" implied that they wished they could (drink, smoke, have sex, take drugs).

Some suggested modifications of the slogan to clarify matters. "I can't. My religion forbids it. Not that I would anyway." Somehow it loses a little something, brevity being the soul of wit and so forth.

At this juncture, we could begin a discussion about semantics and the various implications of the word "can't," which seems to be the key sticking point for some. I won't? Or we could begin a discussion about how some people want to do things they would regret later, but they choose instead to follow their conscience and their religious dictates. It's called temptation.

And we could go on all day about how some people need a ready excuse to extricate themselves from awkward social situations or peer pressure, and who cares if they want to pin it on their religion, their mother, the law or all three.

"Mormons outside of Utah use that phrase all the time," says Herrera. "People say, maybe if you're having to say 'I can't,' you're in situations you shouldn't be in. Well, I live in Las Vegas. We don't all work at Deseret Book."

But enough about all of that. How about everybody take a deep breath and relax a little? Did they have their senses of humor removed?

Can't people laugh at themselves and the peculiarities of their culture (the Bible calls followers "peculiar" in the world). Here's a possibility: Maybe the T-shirt isn't a statement of beliefs; maybe it's just a humorous T-shirt.