19. Some so-called strange laws which simply don’t exist
One of the popular dumb laws cited by many of the websites and magazine articles which specialize in disseminating them regards a law in Arkansas which makes it illegal to pronounce the state’s name incorrectly by sounding the final letter. According to the story, the legislature made it illegal to pronounce the state’s name in any manner other than Ar’-kan-saw. The claim that those who mispronounce the name is subject to fines or even jail time is false, has always been false and is linked to an act of the legislature in 1881, where after years of dispute they adopted the above pronunciation as official. However, they attached no penalty for mispronunciation.
Another law which is claimed to be on the books in Arkansas is one which bans flirtation between men and women, with some attributing it to the state generically and others citing that it is in effect in Little Rock. It too is mostly false. Little Rock does have a statute that makes certain gestures and actions between men and women illegal, and it includes the word flirt, but it was written with the intent of preventing solicitation for the purpose of prostitution, “along any of the sidewalks, streets, or public ways of the City of Little Rock” and is no longer in effect.
