Voodoo Head Stopped at Florida Airport

US immigration officials have arrested a Haitian woman after baggage screeners found a human head in her luggage at a Florida airport.

Myrlene Severe, 30, has been charged with failing to declare the head on a customs form and transporting "hazardous material".

And what may I ask, is 'hazardous' about a severed head? Well, actually, Mr Severe (what a great name!) got hassled cos it wasn't a 'clean' skull.

Ah, I remember it well. March 1996 - I had travelled to Prague, skimming across the Bohemian snows in the sleeping car of a train carriage from a distant era. While in the Czech Republic, I had visited the Kostnice at Kutna Hora - a church used as ossuary for bones from deconsecrated graves. Better still, the entire interior is decorated with human bones - check out the sculptures!

In the souvenir shop I purchased a replica skull, made from plaster of paris, and looking very realistic - missing teeth, dirty, etc. The shop assistant packed it up, and put in a brown cardboard box for transport.

It was only when I was at Frankfurt Airport, en route to Dublin that I realised my potential folly. My hand luggage was on the conveyor to the x-ray machine, and I began to worry. As my bag passed through the x-ray, I could clearly see the outline of a human skull on the screen. The security staff never twitched - not an eyebrow was raised.

My bag was handed back to me. I worried that these people got heads in hand baggage through here all the time...

Source for Voodoo story: Voodoo head found in air luggage »

there`s a metaphor in there somewhere but it`s eluding me right now.