[Locomotive Breath]

OK - I get the Velma Barfield arsenic reference but what's the mushroom one?

[TommyDale]

A woman announces to her friend that she is getting married for the fourth time.

"How wonderful! But I hope you don't mind me asking what happened to your first husband?"

"He ate poisonous mushrooms and died."

"Oh, how tragic! What about your second husband?"

"He ate poisonous mushrooms too and died."

"Oh, how terrible! I'm almost afraid to ask you about your third husband."

"He died of a fractured skull."

"A fractured skull?"

"He wouldn't eat the mushrooms."

[TommyDale]

Do you know that Velma Barfield is only one of several North Carolina women who used arsenic? Most recently, Ann Miller, when she poisoned her husband Eric in 2000. She almost got away with it.

I actually pointed this out to a News & Observer reporter, Oren Dorrell (now with USA Today) but he didn't see any significance. Typical N&O reponse, eh?