Good week for:
The Microsoft 25, after the giant software company sheepishly announced that 25 laid-off employees could keep the accidental overpayments in their severance checks. The company originally demanded that the fired employees refund the money, but relented after its tersely worded letter was leaked on the Internet.
The Taliban, after the London Times printed Google Earth photos of U.S. Predator drones awaiting their next mission at an airbase in Pakistan. To mollify Islamic extremists, the Pakistani government has pretended to be outraged every time an American drone fires a missile into groups of Taliban and al Qaida fighters.
Serial monogamy, after 68-year-old Linda Wolfe of Indiana, who has been married a world record 23 times, said she was looking for husband No. 24. “You know, it gets lonely,” said Wolfe, who described herself as “addicted to romance.”
Bad week for:
Hitler’s reputation, after a newly released British intelligence document revealed that the dictator’s dining companions were disgusted by his table manners. Hitler ate too fast, gorged on cakes, bit his nails during meals, and ignored conversations around him.
Facebook addiction, after a 19-year-old Florida man was arrested for allegedly stealing a laptop from a fellow Starbucks customer in order to check his account on the social networking site.
The Irish police, who were alerted by an internal memo to stop issuing traffic tickets to a mysterious Polish immigrant named Prawo Jazdy, who already had accumulated 50 unpaid tickets. Prawo Jazdy, the memo noted, is Polish for “driver’s license.”
