With so much horrific news this November, I searched for some bizarre news to distract myself from all the tragic things going on in the world this month. I didn’t have to look too far for some weird headlines and wacky news, and I found out there’s a lot of head scratching stories out there this month.
What could possibly top the feral pigs in the Caribbean, the healing power of blue M&Ms, and first cat to earn a high school diploma? (These were some truly bizarre headlines I wrote about in August 2009). I find that as the leaves fall gently to the ground and the days get shorter and cooler, the news keeps getting kookier. Read on to learn about a music group with its own line of Snuggies, and the young man who has outsmarted the recession (and started his own business) simply by wearing a tee shirt every day!
Hurry and Get Your Weezer Snuggie for Christmas
Weezer and Snuggies…do they somehow go together? Who could have seen it coming? Yet the band Weezer has made good on its promise to create its very own line of Snuggies. Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, you’ve probably heard of that great pop culture invention: the Snuggie.
A Snuggie is simply a warm snuggly blanket with sleeves that is something of a sensation these days. Snuggie displays fill your local grocery or big box stores (usually in the “As Seen on TV” section) or perhaps you’ve seen the Snuggie infomercial? Evidently, Weezer loves their Snuggies! The band has worn them on stage during their performances and now they have released the official Weezer Snuggie, called a “Wuggie.” You can buy your very own Weezer Snuggie (manufactured by Snuggies) bundled with the band’s new CD “Raditude.”
I’m not sure what to make of the Weezer Snuggie (or Wuggie). Part of me thinks that this might be so totally cool and hip that it’s way over my head. I have visions of Weezer fans bundled up in their Weezer Snuggie Wuggies blissing out to the new Weezer Raditude, and showing up at Weezer concerts properly attired in their Wuggies. I have an image stuck in my mind of rows of swaying people in Weezer Snuggies, and that might not be a bad thing (but this vision will keep me up tonight, suppose they start chasing me in my dreams!)
But the other side of me says that Weezer Snuggies are kind of weird! Of course, it’s a clever gimmick to market their new CD Raditude, and it may be an appealing or cool in-joke for Weezer fans who know that Weezer likes Snuggies. On the other hand, it’s a bit too faddish for my taste.
In my opinion, the Wuggie or Weezer Snuggie should delight hard core Weezer fans but I think it’s just a gimmick to wring money out of fans that, even in the bleakest of economic times, will pony up hard earned cash for a Zebra print Weezer Snuggie Wuggie.
Man Earns $83,000 a Year Just for Wearing a T-Shirt
Speaking of the recession, this just in: man beats hard economic times by wearing tee shirts every day! Jason Sadler, the founder of iwearyourshirt.com, makes about $83,000 just for making his torso available as advertising space for various companies. Clever Sadler wears a different company’s tee shirt each day and then promotes the tee shirt (and the company behind it) through social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. Sadler even films himself wearing the tee shirts and posts them on Youtube.
Business is so good for Jason Sadler that he’s already booked up through 2010, reports Yahoo.com. So Sadler is expanding his company and hiring a partner to wear tee shirts on the opposite coast, and also upping his rates. Some would call this a brilliant marketing scheme; others might see it as a gimmick that cashes in on the Facebook/Twitter/Youtube craze (I’m in the latter group).
One wonders what Sadler will do for cash when interest wanes in his tee shirt business? I suppose he can keep going indefinitely, based on the cachet that social networking sites like Facebook have for companies these days. It seems like every company wants to have a presence on Twitter and Facebook, and Jason Sadler provides that type of marketing for the businesses he promotes.
However, if things ever go south for Sadler, I have a brainwave for him: he can just design his own line of Snuggies!
More bizarre news for November: Woman in South Korea fails the written part of her driver’s license exam 950 times before finally passing the test, and sex can cause short term amnesia (oh dear!) It’s definitely shaping up to be another wild and weird month for odd news; I wonder what bizarre stories the holidays will bring?
Sources:
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/11/03/weezer-fulfill-snuggie-promise-rock-out-with-kenny-g/
http://www.prefixmag.com/news/weezer-announce-their-own-line-of-snuggies-the-wug/29234/
http://www.iwearyourshirt.com
http://blog.emurse.com/2009/11/06/guy-makes-83k-a-year-wearing-a-t-shirt/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091106/od_nm/us_rental
http://news.aol.com/article/south-korean-woman-takes-written-drivers/755777
http://news.aol.com/health/article/sex-can-trigger-transient-global-amnesia/756243
