Freaky Friday

This has to be, by far, the all-time freakiest opening paragraph to a news story:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A man transporting his wife's severed head in a pickup truck collided with an oncoming car, killing a woman and her 4-year-old daughter, police said. The impact sent the head flying onto the road.

I'm sorry, but I just can't add anything to that. I know it's really a sad story, but I have to smile when I think of the AP stringer writing that lead.

Blogging has been light of late, but I swear summer school will try the patience of Job. I have, though, survived another week AND I think I'm making progress on my flea problem. Fleas, GRRR! I'm thinking of moving to Alaska or Greenland or somewhere like that. On a brighter note, the coffee gang went to see The Odd Couple: Female Version last night. The name kind of tells you the story. I did not, though, realize that Neil Simon actually wrote this alternate version. I figured it was just a twist the Calhoun folks put in.

The play was pretty good, but I did wonder about one thing. In the play, Florence and Olive (female versions of Felix and Oscar) attempt to date the Costazuela brothers -- Manolo and Jesus. Much of the subsequent humor depends on "translation problems" as Manolo and Jesus do not have a real firm grasp of English language nuances. Yeah, it's an easy way to get laughs and it got old pretty quickly, but it was kind of funny for a while. I wondered, though, about the "social acceptability" of this bit.

First, the guys playing Manolo and Jesus were not Spanish. Second, the play essentially "poked fun" at their inability to speak English. Third, their Spanish accents and behaviors were way over the top. I don't think anyone would call me politically correct, but the whole thing (especially that third point above) did seem a little "minstrel show" to me. The skit wasn't what I would call offensive and it would have been right at home on Saturday Night Live, but what are the rules for theater today?