The “random” part of the “random discourse.”
An article in Newsweek alerted me to a company that produces stuffed-toy microbes. It really does! I’m weird, but I think they’re really cute. (Not that I’m interested in encounters with the real deal.)
According to the article, the shop in Harvard’s Square that sells the germs reports that gonorrhea is a favorite, especially around Valentine’s Day. Cynical? Realistic? Sick humor?
The next time I go in a toy store, I’ll be on the lookout for more germs than usual.
The funniest thing I’ve seen online in a while: $1 hot dogs for sale.
I wrote about strip clubs using the $2 bill and its effect on the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (the Mint).
According to a Newsweek article this week about the declining use of actual currency, notes that in 2006, all US currency totaled $784 billion with an estimated $400 billion in actual circulation. This article also stated that in 2007, the government will print about 9.1 billion individual bills, 95% to replace worn currency.
According to the article referenced in my previous post, in 2005 the orders for $2 bills totaled $122 million (and the number is expected to rise). That’s not a significant percentage of the amount of currency in circulation, but I’m betting it’s a significant percentage of the bills to be printed. I wish I had access to all the numbers and information I want to be able to accurately determine the effect of the adult industry on the US Mint, but that probably won’t happen.
It’s fun to speculate, though.
Here’s a book that I think might intrigue my male readers. Brent Kenton Jordan has written The Chivalry Code: Discussions on Becoming a Man in a Modern World. Now, before you think this is another “be a man†guide, remember that this is the same man who wrote Stripped: Twenty Years of Secrets from Inside the Strip Club.
A discussion on chivalrous philosophy created by a man who has spent most of his life watching men at their worst is an intriguing idea – to me. The Chivalry Code is on my buy/read list. It sounds like a Robert Greene-style of book with a less-than-academic twist.
This is blatant free plug for Brent’s book. I know him. A little. I approached him cold, through e-mail, more than a year ago. He’s been very nice to me and has patiently answered my questions. We’ve never met. The book would be on my list even if I didn’t know him; it’s just likely I would not have heard about it.
Newsweek recently interviewed Sanjya, the American Idol contestant. (I don’t watch it but I sort of know the plotline.) The interviewer seemed intrigued that his sister worked at Hooters. Sanjya defended her by saying she needed a job, as if it were an unusual reason for working at Hooters.
So…all the rest of the girls who work at Hooters are there feeding a deep-seated personal need to serve messy food and beer to middle-aged men who want to date them? Might it not be because they need the job too?
Sometimes it’s amazing how far stupid stereotypes extend. (Correct me if I’m wrong in assuming that most Hooters girls work there for the money.)