South Florida talk

The entire country is talking about a Broward County judge. Erika Bolstad discusses the reaction to his handling of the Anna Nicole case in the Miami Herald.

Dave Barry, on the other hand, says there's only one reason for this judge's antics,

...instead of a thoughtful, dignified, decorous, mentally stable judge, we got an American Idol contestant -- sometimes sobbing like Dorothy when she had to say goodbye to the Scarecrow; sometimes firing off one-liners that he apparently thought were hilarious. Ha ha! Stop it, Judge, you Krazy Kourtroom Karacter!

The reason: The South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet.

Well, sure. We've known about this one for years. So all the things that Dave mentions in this column should have included things from even further back in history: I mean, yeah, he mentions Elian and OJ, but those are relatively recent. What about the early '80s cocaine cowboys and the Dadeland shootout; what about Edward Leedskalnin and the Coral Castle? The Coconut Grove freakshow of the 60s and 70s? All those goofy 50s tourist traps? The weird murders Edna Buchanan used to write about? It's been going on for a long time.

On the Anna Nicole topic, note that Miami Herald editor/blogger Steve Rothaus has posted a profile he wrote in 2005 about Richard Milstein, the court-appointed guardian in this case, to his blog.