Minding Their Business

This week, while looking around for what weird or unusual things that  are happening in the news, I came across a few stories in the business pages.  

Cafe Going to the Cats

Who knew?  Not me!  As I was looking around to see what odd things were happening out in the world this week, I noticed that a new cat cafe was being planned for Paris.  Huh? A cat cafe?  I hadn't heard of that but it turns out that there are a number of cafes around the world that have a staff of cats...(I know a group of cats is a clowder but I am talking about a clowder of cats that are working for the cafe)  to provide companionship for the cafe's patrons. In Japan alone there are 79 of the "neko cafes" as they are called there. There are also, cat cafes in London, Vienna, Taiwan, and Korea. 

As for the Paris cafe, a young cat loving French woman, Margaux Gandelon is creating a cafe for the stressed out urbanites which will be named  Le Cafe des Chats.



Cat cafes are more like tearooms that  allow a person to sip tea or coffee, eat sweet tarts and pastries while spending time with  furry little friends. The idea is that the cafes provide a de-stressing kind of therapy for frazzled city dwellers...a purr therapy, if you will.

While most Parisians like cats, there are some naysayers to the idea of cat cafes.  Christophe Marie, a veterinarian from the Bardot Foundation in Paris.  "What makes me uncomfortable is the animals will be reduced to being a teddy bear.  Cats don't have a particularly strong desire to be petted by customers at a cafe."

Gandelon is quick to come to the idea's defense.

Customers don't go to the cats.  The cats will decide their whereabouts.  They alone will choose to settle down in the lap of the lucky person. In addition, we are already working with a veterinarian who will follow the cats regularly to check their physical and mental health."

The cafe will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  According to Gandelon this is so the cats will not be disturbed.

So as a cat lover, I can see me being OK with a room full of cats.  I don't see that the room full of cats is going to be keen about having me in their space.  I found it interesting that the cafe owner is going to keep a vet on the task of tracking the cats mental health.  How does one know if a cat is in need of therapy?


Speaking of needing therapy

The Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Mike Jeffries is back in the news.  He has banned the color black from the brand on the grounds he feels it's too formal.  The new policy not only is meant to restrict the sale of black clothes but discourages any of the employees from wearing black. This applies to wearing black winter coats to work in cold weather.

When the company was asked for a comment regarding the policy they explained their reasons by saying:
" Abercrombie & Fitch does not sell black clothing and discourages wearing it at our home office and in our stores because we are a casual lifestyle brand and feel black clothing is formal.  We have nothing against black clothing and feel it is perfectly appropriate for things like tuxedos."

This isn't the first controversial statement from Jefferies.  In a previous interview he said he didn't want "larger people" shopping in his stores. He went on to say "That's why we hire good looking people in our stores.
Because good-looking people attract good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people.  We don't market to anyone other than that."  He later tried to explain himself by saying "In every school there are cool and popular kids, then there are the not-so-cool kids.  Candidly we go after the cool kids.  We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends."

Of course, later he apologized for "any offense caused by comment made in the past." He pledged to "demonstrate a commitment to anti-bullying in addition to our ongoing support of diversity and inclusion."


Well, gosh, I can see how strong the company commitment is to diversity and inclusion...as long as you are good looking, popular and don't wear black.

Cheaters Never Win  But They Sometimes Score

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember a post (link) about the web site Ashley Madison.com.  The site is for married people to hook up with other married people to have extramarital affairs. Yes, sleazy but evidently a very busy, website.

It turns out that they have conducted a poll.  You know how much I like surveys.

Well it turns out they did a survey to find out if men and women want to cheat with people more successful than themselves or less successful than themselves.

Drum roll please.....the results are in.


83.1 percent of middle class men want to cheat with working class women.
51.8 percent of upper-class men are looking for women that are middle-class.
42.4 percent of upper class men want working class women.

67 percent of the working class women want upper class men for their flings.
40.7 percent of the middle class women want upper class men.
53.6 percent of middle class women want middle class men.

So what does any of this mean. According to the analysis it shows that men overall want women that will admire them, praise them and look up to them (well not literally...OK maybe literally as well)

A large number of women also want to be with a person that they could admire and respect. (using the word respect very loosely here)


So the majority of cheaters want to cheat with people more successful than themselves. They say they want to be with people that they can respect.  They might want to start by looking to not be with people that are cheaters.