Turns out New Yorkers do have a sense of humor (even when they don't think they do).

Reporting a column on the four bodies that surfaced in Harbor waters around Baltimore this month, I thought I'd compare it to the notorious dumping ground of the New York mob -- the East River (yes, I'm trying the Pine Barrens too).

The New York Police Department is trying to find out if their East River body county exceeds our Inner Harbor body count, but in the meantime I called the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. I got a spokeswoman:

"You want what?" she asked.

"I want to know how many bodies you pulled from the East River this year," I answered.

"Dead ones?" she asked, perfectly seriously.

I couldn't help myself:

"Is there any other kind?" I asked.

"Well, yes, sometimes people fall in and we pull them out alive," she answered.

I gave up at that point. I'd love to know how many times the Medical Examiner gets called to cart away a body only to arrive (long after the cops and the paramedics) to find it alive! She sent me to the city's health department, which sent me back to the police.