A Few Random Stories for a Long-Overdue Friday

First things first: my clever ploy to drive up my hit statistics by using "Sex" as the title of yesterday's post didn't quite work out as well as planned. According to Google Analytics, I had only 101 hits yesterday, which is just slightly over my daily average of 95; according to the hit counter on the blog, I had 227 hits, which is just above the daily average of 210 (I can't explain the difference in count between the two). I deduce from this that sex does not sell as well as it used to, perhaps because people are tired of being screwed by both Republicans and Democrats. I need a Plan B to boost readership ... any thoughts?

Well, we've made it to Friday. How about a look at a couple of things that transpired in the last few days ...

According to this article I read yesterday on Yahoo News, a woman named Fausat Ogunbayo has sued the city of West Brighton, NY, for 900 trillion dollars. Her lawsuit alleges that the city improperly put her two children into foster care, claiming that the city and its Administration for Children's Services

"... (caused) plaintiff substantial economic hardship; (caused) plaintiff substantial economic injuries; (deprived) plaintiff and plaintiff children's Civil Right, 42 U.S.C. section 1983; (deprived) plaintiff and plaintiff's children, the right to family integrity; (deprived) plaintiff and plaintiff's children, the right to life, liberty, property and the right guaranteed by statute; (and disregarded) the probability of plaintiff's children, suffering emotional and mental distress."

I guess she told them. I'm not sure which is the more amazing aspect of this story: the incredible level of chutzpah of a person who would file a lawsuit worth more than 64 times the total GNP of the United States, or the astounding ass-clownery of an attorney who would bring such a lawsuit on her behalf.

Do you suppose I could sue all the people who don't read my blog for inflicting intense emotional distress on me?

In another interesting story, a gigantic hotel is scheduled to open - 24 years behind schedule - in the tourist mecca of Pyongyang, North Korea. The hotel, shown in this picture

has been critically needed for many years, as smaller hotels have been swamped by the legions of tourists flocking to North Korea to enjoy its raucous night life and world-renowned cuisine (which features such delicacies as grass, tree bark, and small, slow-moving animals).

The story notes that official plans for the hotel have not been announced by the North Korean government, although a current rumor indicates that "many of the middle floors" will be left empty, while the "lower floors" will be dedicated to hotel rooms and the "upper floors" to restaurants.

Book now. Beat the rush.

And that's how it is for this cold, dreary Friday morning. Tonight there will be dancing, and tomorrow and Sunday the usual combination of errand-running and entertaining our endlessly-imaginative grandchildren. Oh, and in between, we'll be doing the no-snow dance.

I hope it works.

Have a good day. See you tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday ... more thoughts then.

Bilbo