Look at that headline. The piece that follows, from yesterday’s NYT (by John Schwartz) had me laughing, pondering and saying a lot of “What? what?” And “WHAT?????”
You’ve got to read the whole thing (Declared Legally Dead, as He Sat Before the Judge – NYTimes.com., which begins:
Donald E. Miller Jr. is legally dead, an Ohio judge explained to Donald E. Miller Jr. this week in court.
That should be all the impetus you need. Oh, except for my favorite lines in the story. A lawyer named Francis Marley, who is representing Donald E. Miller in this, um, action? non-action?, problem? is quoted thusly in the two last paragraphs:
As for why his client, who told Judge Davis that he is an alcoholic, disappeared for so many years, the lawyer said that “he was just — I guess you would call it a man-of-the-road, free-spirit type.”
Had he ever encountered a case like this? “No,” Mr. Marley said, “but I’ve only been practicing for 43 years.”