Boston in the fall

In case you're wondering, Sept. 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, matey, hence the get-up.

I can't really look mean, even when I try. But you'd think I was a hardened criminal if you didn't know any better.

After not getting a traffic ticket in more than six years, seems yesterday I made a right turn on red at an intersection in OKC where one isn't supposed to do that.

No warning, no slack. I'm not female.

The price for such a heinous crime? $172 shekels of gold.

Aaargh!

Shiver me timbers and pillage my booty. Guess I'll pick me two weeks here in the next month when I can do without eating so I can pay me fine.

It's not about the money, they say. It's about the lesson. Which I find kinda funny, because a warning or a $5 ticket would have taught the same lesson. People should respect the law, they say. How patronizing. I'd respect the law a whole lot more if, rather than sticking a plainclothes cop at a sparsely-traveled intersection on a Sunday afternoon they'd assign that officer to something useful. Like maybe trying to find out who broke the window in my car last year and rummaged through the glovebox. Or maybe the person who stole the car I had before that two years ago. To my knowledge, no one has been brought to justice in either case.

I'd respect the law a whole lot more if we convicted a rapist and made him serve more than six months of his 15-year prison term before we let him out on parole.

But $172 for an illegal right turn, not to mention three years of increased insurance premiums? That doesn't make me respect the law; that gives me an attitude about cops. And I don't apologize for it. One of these days they'll wake up and figure out why public perception is what it is. Meantime, violent criminals will continue to be underpunished by the system while absent-minded drivers walk the plank.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Reminded me of my favorite pirates, Larry, Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt of Veggie Tales fame -- the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. I've taken a break from Free Indeed today to play you the Pirates' song from the movie Jonah.


Ahoy.