The Other >#$% Meat

Mark this one down as goofy story of the month.   There is a web site called "ThinkGeek.com" which sells a variety of well, geeky stuff like Star Wars Blueprints and a cool "Pirates on Toast Jolly Roger Toast Stamp."  Recently, they received a "cease and desist" order from the National Pork Board because ThinkGeek had posted an April Fools advertisement for Canned Unicorn Meat.   Unfortunately for ThinkGeek.com, they described the imaginary food item as "The Other White Meat" a trademark held by the NPB.  Suffice it to say, the NPB employed a full suite of lawyers to craft a 12 page letter demanding ThinkGeek "cease and desist" from infringing upon the NPB's trademark and confusing consumers as to which "white meat" was "the other white meat."

You can read the entire sordid tale here including the offending advertisement.   The entire story would be quite funny if it weren't for the fact that there apparently is at least one staff of lawyers who have no sense of humor and don't know that unicorns are imaginary.   Not to mention missing the class in law school on protected use as parody under copyright and trademark law.

BP's Final Option?

A friend sent this to me and I thought it was pretty funny. It'd be funnier if the actual situation wasn't such a horrendous disaster.

I'd be happy to credit whoever created the image if I knew who it was.

College Grads and Wall Street

I recently commented on a story on Marketplace (NPR) about recent college graduates taking jobs on Wall Street.   My comments should be aired today on the NPR program.   The story is here. 

My comment:This story reminds me of the folly of youth. What these graduates seem to be blissfully unaware of is how life unfolds and the grip a high paying job puts on people. They also seem to think that as new employees they'll have some sort of influence on how their Wall Street firm will behave. New "meat" has no influence on a company and they exist solely to make profits. After being in such a job for a few years, I doubt that many of these young people will suddenly decide to forgo the fortune and leave the high flying Street. Life styles beget lifestyles. I don't know who told one graduate a "significant number" of Wall Street tycoons go off to work for non-profits. On what planet does that happen?

One More Thing

I'm keeping a list of things to do when I become King, and I have another item to join the list (see my main page):  

Ban those 50 foot long retractable dog leashes that people use to allow their dogs to wander far off and across the bike/hike path while they yak on the phone, thereby blocking the entire walkway to bikers and pedestrians.   They then act startled that someone has to come to a complete stop while waiting for them to reel in their dog.