Watermelon Man: Los Alamitos Mayor's Joke Backfires

Forget Smashing Pumpkins -- Los Alamitos Mayor Dean "What Racist Gag?" Grose suddenly found himself on the retaliatory receiving end of a controversy he'd set in motion by sending an ethnically insensitive email. That missive, sent over the past weekend, depicted the White House lawn strewn with watermelons, titled, "No Easter egg hunt this year."


One African American recipient of Grose's email, Keyanus Price, took offense. Price, described as a community volunteer and friend of the mayor, demanded a public apology. So far she has received a private one from the clueless mayor, though he has yet to make a public acknowledgment of his blunder. He claims he was unaware of the racial connotations connected with watermelon imagery.

Today the kerfuffle ratcheted up a notch, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram and other sources, when Grose arrived at work to find a watermelon smashed on his office steps. Police are not treating the gesture as an act of vandalism since the watermelon did not cause any damage. So far '80s comedian Gallagher has not been named a person of interest.