Monday 9/21/09

Human Interest News — Posted on September 21, 2009

Show me the details
Lawmakers in Missouri may have won passage of a bill, but it appears they lost sight of the details. Instead of banning Styrofoam coolers from a number of Show Me State rivers, a law that took effect in August will ban Tupperware from Missouri waterways. It appears the law’s authors simply got confused about plastics. The law bans polypropylene, the plastic used to make Tupperware, tic-tac lids, and light-weight ropes. Lawmakers were seeking to ban expanded polystyrene, the material used to create the ubiquitous white foam coolers that comprise so much river litter. So for now, beer drinkers can keep their coolers on the river, but they will risk a year in jail if they bring along leftovers in Tupperware on their float trip.

Money maker
Though they could probably learn from his techniques, Ken Johnson is doing no favors to the homeless who depend on handouts from strangers to pay for food and shelter. According to a report in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, the 52-year-old homeless man panhandles well over $300 every day from his location in the Australian city’s central business district. The heavyset bearded man who neither smokes, drinks, nor takes drugs simply parks himself on a blue crate and holds a sign that he says seems to work: “Needing support for major family exp(enses) including just heaps for medicine. Paying up is a big grind. Please leave me alone, if you are the abusive nasty sort.” Johnson, who the Australian paper estimates collects up to $42,000 yearly from begging, says he is saving a chunk of the cash he gets for a friend who needs a liver transplant.

Wedding cashers
Money may not be able to buy you love, but in Japan it can buy you friends. Office Agents, a Japanese firm, rents out temps for $200 to fill out a wedding party or even fill up the room where the wedding is to take place. For about an extra $100, an actor will even make a toast. The company also rents companions for corporate functions, funerals, and other events, and says the concept is catching on. One groom reportedly rented an entire wedding party rather than ask his friends to show up to celebrate his second marriage. Hiroshi Mizutani, who heads Office Agents, told the Telegraph that his “fakers” must possess certain qualifications: “They are cheery and clean and look like they have regular jobs.”