I just had to share this. I think I saw it on Boing Boing. It’s a trial of a guy who stole 40,000 hotel coat hangers. During his testimony, he gives the prosecutor the complete run around, making him (the prosecutor) seem like a total idiot. Here’s a brief snippet of the testimony.
Counsel: Are you serious when you say that clients of yours drink from their own minibars in their own bedrooms in their own homes?
Chrysler: Certainly. And just as in a hotel, they grumble about the price and size of the bottles, and the absence of ice.
Counsel: So why don’t they get a proper fridge in their bedroom?
Chrysler : Because then it wouldn’t be like a hotel.
Judge: Tell me, Mr Chrysler, do these businessmen of yours also have Gideon Bibles by their bedside at home?
Chrysler: Many of them, sir.
Judge: And where do you get the Gideon Bibles from?
Chrysler: Alas, they, too, have to be taken from hotels.
Judge: Then why are you not also up on a charge of Bible-stealing?
Chrysler: Because the Bibles do not belong to the hotels. They belong to the Gideon Society. And the Gideon Society has decided not to prosecute me, but to forgive me and tell me to go and sin no more.
Judge: And have you sinned no more?
Chrysler: Alas, no.
I just read the whole thing. That’s hilarious (even if it’s not real). It reads like something Douglas Adams would’ve written. And this bit reminds me of C. S. Lewis:
“It isn’t, strictly, a question, and it is not graceful English but you must pretend that it is a question and then answer it, otherwise we will be here for ever.”
I loved how the judge was taking jabs at the prosecutor.
Okay, maybe it’s the medicine (I’m at home sick today), but I just realized the quote I mentioned previously reminds me of Lewis Carroll, NOT C. S. Lewis (that would make no sense what-so-ever).
Ugh. Stupid mistake! (Stupid un-editable blog comment forms!)
Sadly… i was thinking Lewis Carroll when I read your comment.