Texting and Walking and Falling and Suing...

This is the video that started off a trend. It had plenty of people rolling around on the floor laughing or in abbreviated speak ROFLMAO.



And, this is the response of the woman (albeit a beat-up of the interview she gave to Good Morning America on ABC), Cathy Cruz Marrero. Marrero is the unfortunate soul who was caught on the mall CCTV falling into a water fountain in the Berkshire Mall in Pennsylvania while she was texting her friend.



Now, it seems that Marrero has decided that it is probably worth trying to sue the mall where she fell into the fountain. It appears that Marrero and her lawyer, James Polyak, believe that they have a case to pursue because Marrero could have been seriously hurt and because the security guard did not organise for someone to come to her aid. The security guard was clearly too busy laughing to organise a call for someone to help, or was he. It is yet to be proven when the tape that appears on YouTube was actually made.

The YouTube version, at least to my technologically challenged brain, to be a mobile phone video of the CCTV footage. This could have been made 5, 20, 50 minutes after the Marrero fall. It could have also been made 2 or 3 days later. However, more research is required on that front. Nevertheless, watching the footage suggests that Marrero was not badly hurt as she gets out of the fountain and then high-tails it out of there. There is good reason why Marrero does this. She is an employee in a store that operates in the Mall. In any event, she did not hang around and wait for any assistance to be rendered.

The security guard that was on duty when the fall occurred has been fired.

The truth of the matter is that the footage should never have become public. But, that is the nature of the world we live in now. Technology ensures that much of the stupidity we get caught out doing or being a part of will one day makes its way online. Yet, how much should the mall management be expected to stump up for the footage making it into the public domain?

Unfortunately, for Marrero, and by her own admission, texting and walking at the same time can be dangerous as she has found out the fountain fall way. The reason she fell into the fountain was because she was not paying attention. For the mall to be liable for the fall means that the courts would have to accept that they have a responsibility to fence of fountains and place warning signs throughout the mall that it is dangerous to text and walk at the same time because you might walk into a fountain, or a glass door, or fall down an escalator.

Perhaps the answer is that malls ban mobile / cell phones. That is, when you come to the mall you have to check your phone at the "phone counter". You get a ticket and can reclaim your mobile phone on the way out of the mall.

There has to be a point where people start assuming more responsibility for their own actions, doesn't there?

Sometimes, though, your fifteen minutes of fame ensure that the spotlight shines on all of your past. Although the interview would suggest that Marrero's unfortunate spill occurred while texting a friend from church, it would seem that Marrero's past is not all angelic. As it turns out, Marrero is also involved in a court case where she has been charged and indicted for theft by deception. Marrero used a co-worker's credit cards to buy more than USD 6000 worth of goods from Target and Zales. Apparently, if found guilty, Marrero is to be sentenced to six months house arrest and required to wear an electronic monitoring device. I wonder if the electronic monitoring device is waterproof?

"Pants on the Ground" -- General Larry Platt

I watched American Idol this morning. It is the audition rounds again. This means you get to seem some really good potential and some real shockers. It also means that you get a chance to see the weird and sometimes inspiring.

One of my favourites was General Larry Platt and a song he wrote himself "Pants on the Ground". There is not a lot going on in the song. However, it was interesting to see that Simon Cowell suggested that he had a funny feeling that the song could be a hit. Cowell might be right. The song has already been covered by Jimmy Fallon doing a Neil Young inspired version of it (awesome) and Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings has done a version of it post-game in the Vikings locker room.

Here are all three versions for your easy viewing pleasure.

American Idol, Simon Cowell, and 45 Million Reasons

I wrote some time ago that Simon Cowell was intimating that he might be leaving American Idol to focus on his other interests. However, it would seem that the American Idol franchise has managed to cobble together a contract that includes 45 million reasons why he should stay. This is about 9 million more reasons than his last contract contained.

The fact that Paula Abdul has decided to pull up stumps and pursue opportunities elsewhere is neither here nor there as far as I am concerned. I would still watch American Idol for the train wrecks that think they can sing and for the total slaying that these wanna be singers get at the hands of Cowell. Cowell is always good for a whole range of "you can't say that on tv" put downs that show the power of 15 seconds (or 2 maybe 3 minutes) of fame have.

The fact that more and more people turn up every year for auditions proves the point on the lure of fame, like moths to a flame.

Oh well, looking forward to another year of American Idol mayhem.

Oral Sex

The heading of this post reflects the content and is by no means a cynical attempt to boost visitor numbers to my humble abode. Then again maybe it is that too!

Let's face it oral sex is no longer taboo like it might once have been and it certainly is no longer solely practiced by members of the oldest profession in the world. The Australian Sexual Health Congress being held in Perth that some 90 per cent of those under 30 have partaken in what is conveniently named "going down under" seeing the congress is in Australia and all. It is interesting that so many people have now started to poke their collective heads around down stairs so to speak

Sex experts (I have always wondered whether or not this means you have had more practice than others and are therefore an expert?) suggest that the sharp rise in those prepared to try are doing so because of better hygiene standards and feminism. I am not sure how the feminism angle plays out but I am guessing more women are exercising the right to be pleasured and get pleasured (not sure that sounds right, but whatever).

Besides oral sex lost a lot of the taboo associated with it when good ol' Billy Clinton decided that oral sex was not really sex when he shook his finger at the assembled media and uttered those now famous words, "I did not have sexual relations with that women!" The rest they say is history. It certainly gave "that woman" aka Monica Lewinsky more than 15 minutes of fame, it did give us the now infamous blue dress with the seminal stains of a serving US president, and myriad of bit part players and their testimony.

The sexperts are also theorizing that people are looking for greater variety in their sexual experiences. Hence going where they have not gone before is perhaps an exciting challenge. It is also theorized that oral sex means that there is no need to think primarily of contraception. The list of theories continues with that oral sex is less likely to result in HIV infection. However, don't count your chickens before they hatch as it seems some other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as gonorrhea and herpes are on the increase in practitioners of oral sex.

So, if you are one of those people that have never been downstairs then you should be happy knowing that you are part of an ever-decreasing minority.

Princess Diana Sex Scandal -- The Butler

Some people cannot find peace in life and then there are others who will not be allowed to rest in peace even in death. Princess Diana seems to be one of those people. One of the worst hiring decisions she might have ever made is her decision to hire one Paul Burrell, serial liar and serial seeker of the proverbial 15 minutes of fame.

The latest brazen grab at the 15 minutes of fame involve allegations that Princess Diana had engaged more than Burrell's butlering services but also his sexual services. Presumably, this was to satisfy the Princesses insatiable sexual desires and supposedly legendary needs for kinky sex, at least in Burrell's semi-functioning brain.

But the claims get even a little more bizarre with a claim that Burrell has seen the Queen in the buff. The story goes that Burrell was chasing one of the Royal Corgis and ended up chasing the little one into the Queen's chamber were she was standing around in the nude. For me, I am wondering what, at that stage would have been, a 70-year old royal was doing standing around naked for with the door open!

I suppose it is a better to claim having had sex with the Princess of Wales rather than with the Royal Corgis. I wonder whether the next claim about Burrell centers on one of the Princes being his love child.

Paul Burrell is a very sad, sad, sad man!