Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Carl Hiaasen, reporter

Fans of Florida crime writer Carl Hiaasen – and isn’t that all of us? – might occasionally think that his novels exaggerate the eccentric, not to say deranged, nature of the citizens of the Sunshine State. Not a bit of it:
Florida Highway Patrol troopers say a two-vehicle crash Tuesday at Mile Marker 21 on Cudjoe Key was caused by a 37-year-old woman driver who was shaving her bikini area while her ex-husband took the wheel from the passenger seat.

“She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit,” Trooper Gary Dunick said. “If I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have believed it. About 10 years ago I stopped a guy in the exact same spot ... who had three or four syringes sticking out of his arm. It was just surreal and I thought, ‘Nothing will ever beat this.’ Well, this takes it.”
As former Floridan Michael Munger, professor of political science and economics at Duke University, says:
There are many things I like about the story. But the best parts, for my money, are that she was getting her ex-husband to drive from the passenger seat. While she sat in the driver’s seat (why?), shaving her tingly bits. To be “ready” for her boyfriend. With a suspended license. In an illegal car.

3 comments:

Phil said...

A brush with the law?

Whoever said...

She needed a bush lawyer.

Unknown said...

Poor Carl. The last we heard he was on suicide watch - depressed at the endless struggle to keep ahead of Florida's madness. This was after an execution went wrong. The felon was strapped in the electric chair. The switch was thrown and sheets of flame flew up from the chap's head. The Governor of Florida was asked about this. He said, "Looks like we got a little problem with the chair. Probably not a good idea to commit crimes in this state!'