JANUARY 29, 2008

BREAK-UP LEAVE?
This story is for anyone who's ever gotten DUMPED... A marketing company in Tokyo, Japan, called Hime & Company, just started giving its employees "break-up leave."

Under their new policy, if you get dumped... or, even, if you dump someone... you get some time off to recover.

The time off you get is based on your age. If you're 24 or under, you get one break-up day off per year... if you're 25 to 29, you get two days off every year... and if you're 30 or older, you get three days off.

Why is it broken down like that? Miki Hiradate is the CEO of the company... she says, quote, "Women in their 20s can find their next love quickly, but it's tougher for women in their 30s, and their break-ups tend to be more serious."

Hime & Company markets cosmetics and other products targeted at women... and right now, all of their employees are female.

The staff also gets two mornings off every year to go shopping for sales. I think that's the part the employees like!

100% OF KIDS HATE CLOWNS. 100%...
Here's some good news if you've got a kid who freaks out any time he sees a CLOWN. He's TOTALLY normal. In fact, you should only be worried if your kid ISN'T afraid of clowns.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in England just finished a survey of 250 kids, ages four through 16, and asked them if they're scared of clowns.

And out of those 250 kids, how many said they were scared of clowns??? ALL 250. Even the 16-year-olds. (OK, I can't believe teens actually admitted this... Are they ASKING for a wedgie at school?)

In all seriousness, a fear of clowns is called "coulrophobia"... and it can cause panic attacks, shortness of breath, nausea and an irregular heartbeat. It's one of the top 10 most commonly searched phobias on Yahoo.com.

Of course, we went to our clown expert... BoBo The Millenium Clown... he says it's just not true... if anything, the kids afraid of clowns come down to 10-15%. If anything, the ADULTS are more scared of clowns (ahem... Kristin Jacobs!)...