They are getting noticed but they are not (hopefully) making their state proud.

Two Tennesseans are in the news today, both for semi-crazy and fairly stupid crimes.

First, a man is accused of faking his kidnapping, as he tried to get his mother to pony up a $200 ransom. The headline there is she didn't want to pay, believing he was faking. Instead, she called police. It leads to a decent mug shot and a story shared around the nation.

Next, and with another mug shot to attract attention, another wire story from Tennessee is about a young woman arrested on a traffic violation, a minor offense until police found a gun hidden inside her vagina.

Yes, not serious news, but such titillating headlines of the various misadventures people find themselves a part of spread easily via social media. Really, they are just minor cases, except they possibly involve drugs and guns, two issues facing all American society.

The coincidence of both being from one of our Southern states just makes it a little more peculiar, but the reality is this stuff happens all over.