Funny Business with Jane Wells
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Maybe Kmart's new ad, "Big Gas Savings," suggests the retailer is really selling attitude, and that's not a bad thing.
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Diary of a CTO, Bob Barker, And Talk Like Obama
Posted By: Jane Wells
CIO.com is an online resource for Chief Information Officers, you know, the head IT guys. And whether they live here or in India, they share a common fate: doomed to a maze of pipelines, processes, and Bluetooth earphones. The site recently did a survey over which wireless devices create the most "buzz" around speakers (BlackBerry Pearl is the buzziest). But my favorite recent column (yes, it's true, I occasionally read something called CIO.com) is titled "Dairy of a Tired CTO."
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The Happiest Live Shot On Earth
Posted By: Jane Wells
'm a cynical person. But it's hard to be cynical at Disneyland. Today I covered the relaunching of the famed submarine ride after nine years, now rechristened the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I first went on this ride when I was a preschooler, so I went in knowing I would be nostalgic, but I had to keep up my journalistic guard! Still, I've gotta hand it to the Disneyland folks. They don't miss a beat.
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PC Vs. Mac "Wins" And Have You Been Scammed?
Posted By: Jane Wells
The “PC versus Mac” ads are THE BEST. And they have now been recognized as such, given the top prize at the 41st Annual Belding Awards, a Tinseltown nod to the marketing industry. The ads were created by TBWA/Media Arts Lab, based in Los Angeles. Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News wonders if the Geico Cavemen can get their own TV show, why not Mac and PC? Apple could underwrite the whole show! Except, of course, people like me love PC more than Mac.
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Judge Dredd-Ful And His "Reduced" $67M Pants!
Posted By: Jane Wells
Good news! A guy suing a Washington, DC area dry cleaner for $67 million over a pair of pants gone missing two years ago has reduced his damages demand to only $54 million! The guy is a judge. A JUDGE! Administration law judge Roy Pearson is suing under the local Consumer Protection Act (that must be some act), claiming signs posted inside Custom Cleaners were fraudulent by promising "Satisfaction Guaranteed." Pearson wants $54 million to make it right. Talk about being taken to the cleaners.
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Dell "Dude" Taking A Bite Of The Apple?
Posted By: Jane Wells
Remember Ben Curtis? He's the actor who played Steven, the "Dell Dude," the only memorable Dell ad campaign ever. Curtis was eventually phased out--he wanted to move on, and there was also the little matter of getting arrested for trying to buy marijuana. Since then, Curtis has done a little of this, a little of that. He was hired to promote Gameznflix, an online game and DVD rental company.
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Google Co-Founder Caught "Off Guard"
Posted By: Jane Wells
So here's what you don't see on TV. I covered the first ever web developer conference held by Google, a "coming of age" rite for a company that, well, came of age a while ago. No top executives were supposed to be there. They were all supposed to be at the D5 tech conference near San Diego. So you can imagine my shock when, as I ignorantly sat on my journalistic butt, producer Christine Egy ran up and said, "Sergey Brin just walked in!"
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Princess of the Cubes, No eBay Love, Fruit Fly Contest Winner
Posted By: Jane Wells
A San Francisco-based author/career counselor is using the fairytale princesses in "Shrek the Third" to hawk a book called "Make the Right Career Move." Okay, it's a stretch, but the nuggets in the release are fun. Using the princess theme, author Rachelle Canter commissioned a survey of office workers on how many people work with "princesses."
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Breast Charity, Not-so-Hot Domains, Hide-the-Burrito, Hearty Beer & More
Posted By: Jane Wells
The Burlesque Hall of Fame is teaming up with Keep A Breast Foundation to raise awareness about breast cancer. Well, one can see how this is, as the burlesque organization says, "a match made in heaven."Now, to raise awareness, the Hall of Fame next month reportedly will host an art exhibit and auction featuring plaster breast molds of "legendary burlesque, pin-up and cheesecake queens." The museums founder, it turns out, died of the disease in 1991. Her name, Jennie Lee, was known as "The Bazoom Girl."
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Mid-week Mania
Posted By: Jane Wells
I am told by a very good source that Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville has no test kitchen. The company that sells everything, including the kitchen sink... has none. A vendor coming to demo food at the world's largest retailer of food has "to cook in the Sam's Club employee lunch room, then wheel it over next door to Wal-Mart to present it."
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Microsoft's Bad Karma, Hamsters, Un-PC Biz Idea of the Day & More
Posted By: Jane Wells
The company built by the world's richest man takes on the world's largest democracy, and it's a case of cyber culture clash. India-based itVAR News (an IT website) says Microsoft is billing computer retailers in the town of Gujarat thousands of dollars, accusing them of installing pirated Windows software.The retailers have responded with a strike, a boycott and general outrage, though no one appears to be denying the accusations. One Indian retailer put it this way, "Since we are not charging anything extra for installing the software, it means that we are actually not trading in pirated software. For us, this is just a 'sewa' (selfless act) that we are offering to our customers. Besides, the pricing of their operating systems is way too high for Indian markets."
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About Funny Business
If it was up to Jane Wells, she’d spend her entire day combing Mother Earth for stories and observations just for this blog. She has more fun writing Funny Business than anything else she does... professionally, that is. Funny business is whatever Jane considers hilarious, strange, fishy, or ridiculous, which pretty much covers everything on Wall Street. It is her hope this blog makes you smile, even when the news is grim. After all, it's only money.
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Based in Los Angeles, Wells is currently a CNBC business news reporter and also writes CNBC.com's “Funny Business.”
Humor
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Sometimes when you do things in the comfort of your own home, everyone gets a little too comfortable.
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Chief funster? Yep, that's a job. It's one of six dream jobs Australia is hiring for. How do you qualify? Read on.
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The magic of hot sauce -- and beer shakes, which are being sold by the Charleston River Dogs baseball team.