Three Amigos: Skink, Duke and Brando

Remember the late, great Richard Pryor? Onstage, he’d make those brilliant observations with a heaping helping of 10- and 12-letter words.

CARL HIAASEN: The writer from 40,000 fathoms.

Then he’d show up on network television (you remember that, don’t you?) and do the same routines, but manage to stop just before uttering those words you couldn’t say on TV back then.

I was thinking of those deft performances while reading Carl Hiaasen’s new