Officer enters a house and finds a human skull on the coffee table. Over and above the obvious questions about who the skull belongs to and why it's there, is it a crime to possess a human skull????????? My less-than-adequate Westlaw skills have failed me again...

This sounds like Jeff Foxworthy -- "If you use a human skull for an ashtray . . . you might be a redneck." From one quasi-redneck county to another!

How'd your friend, the Cryptkeeper, obtain his morbid coffee table accessory? The Dark Side of E-bay, perhaps?

Supposedly, it was a gift from a science professor...

Perhaps Professor Frankenstein should be charged with abuse of a corpse. Of course, every academician has his/her favorite Goth in any given class.

Have lab tests confirmed it is real? A number of very good replicas are available. My law school roomate had a full size one, and I have a 1/4 lifesize one in my office. They look very real. Check to see if the teeth are real--that's the giveaway.

John,

How do you tell if the teeth are real? I know that is the question you wanted.

Well, the teeth on the replicas are obviously fake because they are molded into the skull and separate jaw. Until you realize that, though, they look really good. My law school roommate laughed his tail off at me.

Your law school roommate had a tail?

Probably a banjo player.

Well, he was from Tennessee after all . . . so tails and banjos were certainly part of the mix, as was possum pie. It's that combination of an interesting gene pool and all the extra radiation in the Oak Ridge area . . .

Unfortunately, I cannot add a comment regarding banjos and banjo players due to my New Year's Resolution posted on this forum.

However, I am convinced that catfish noodling and human skull ownership have some sort of nexus.

Human skulls, wow! I love how I never know what topics to expect on this forum!

Any developments on this case? Somewhat unique...

The local J.P. is going to seize the skull and conduct an inquest. This is in a neighboring county (not that my folks are above this kind of interesting behavior) but the Ranger will keep me informed so I'll keep everyone updated on any developments.