from the weirdness files

1.) Did you guys hear about the big bathrobe recall? Apparently some robe, made in Pakistan and sold through a catalogue company, is responsible for a number of women in their 70s and 80s setting themselves on fire while cooking. Am I a very bad person for finding something vaguely hilarious about that? It's not that I'm making light of anyone's horrible cooking injury. It's just the specificity of the danger that seems absurd. You know how children's sleepwear is made flame-retardant? Well, someone is missing out on a whole new target market here. Flame-proof loungewear for the elderly! So Gramma can put on the tea kettle in the morning without bursting into flames!

2.) Okay, you probably are tired of me telling you about what stoopid things other people say on the internet, but I feel it is my duty to report, so's you don't have to read all these posts and blogs and comments yourselves. And yet you will *still* be informed about the strangeness and idiocy of the American public. (Um, in case you don't actually have to deal with the American public in real life, that is.) It's another blog service! Today's writing comes from a thread on "financial recovery" in which people with debt and general money problems are meant to support each other. Seems this gentleman paid $50 of his internet bill online (a fraction of the total bill--he didn't have enough money in his checking account to pay it all at once) then cancelled the payment in lieu of buying a new down comforter for $50 because it was such a good deal. Um, excuse me? You can't even pay all your bills and yet you're buying things because you want them and they're cheap? I kinda don't think this is "financial recovery" but I'm sure all his supportive internet pals will give him big cyber hugs anyway. What's the gentleman's plan for paying his internet bill and cell phone? He's praying to god for new customers for his side business. Oh, that ought to work just as well as The Secret. (Plus, isn't there something about god helping those who help themselves? I think there is!)

xoxo