Carl Hiaasen The Miami Herald

September 30, 2010

Carl Hiaasen
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132-1693

RE: Don’t you hate it when a plan doesn’t come together? Some comments on the Herald’s treatment [Today, Page 2B - Broward edition] on what the Court House grand jury didn’t do.

Mr. Hiaasen,

Could it be the Florida version of “the dog didn’t bark”?

The Leon County grand jury decided that no crime had been committed. After all, “it’s a courthouse”.

The one thing I objected to was the promiscuous use of the term “Taj Mahal”. When I was in Bayonne the “Taj Mahal” was the name given to the Hudson County Jail. It was run by Ali Baba who was ably attended to by his 40 thieves. You may think that I am getting a bit too close to Dave Barry and his famous phrase “I cannot make this up” but the warden was a dead ringer for Khrushchev. I think his name was McFarland so that would have been a truly cross cultural exchange.

There are two things to note

#1 – Hudson County, the home of America’s first judicial Taj Mahal, was so overwhelmingly Democratic that my father, the legendary Judge Smith, said that it would not be unusual for there to be no votes for Republicans before the dead showed up. That way there would always be a half a dozen GOP votes.

#2 – Based on the news story you and I appear to be the only two adults in Florida, Republican or Democratic, who did not get to OK this deal.

Do you think it was “shovel ready”?






Kevin Smith