Small Talk: Mommy juice, superhero unemployment
Kai Ryssdal: This final note as we wrap up, time on a Friday to check the news that didn’t quite make the headlines. It comes to us the same way it always does, courtesy of Rico Gagliano, Brendan Francis Newnam and select members of the Marketplace staff.
Rico Gagliano: Millie Jefferson, director. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Millie Jefferson: Well there’s an employment agency in central Florida that’s partially funded by the government that wants to spend $14,000 to buy red capes — red superhero capes — for unemployed people.
Gagliano: What?
Jefferson: It’s part of their community outreach to engage the unemployed in their community, draw them in so they they can help them find jobs.
Gagliano: They’re going to do this by giving them capes?
Jefferson: They say so they can fight Evil Mr. Unemployment.
Gagliano: It sounds more like a plot hatched by the Evil Captain Condescension.
Brendan Newnam: Avishay Artsy, assistant producer for Marketplace. What story are you talking about this weekend?
Avishay Artsy: Mommy Juice.
Newnam: Do you need me to leave for a second?
Artsy: Actually Mommy Juice is a wine company that’s being sued by another company called Mommy’s Time-Out because of their name.
Newnam: But I take it Mommy Has a Problem is still available as a name?
Artsy: I think so. I mean, this is an issue of trademark violation.
Newnam: Not an issue of violation of good taste?
Artsy: I think if your wine is called “Mommy Juice,” taste isn’t really an issue.
Gagliano: Ethan Lindsay, producer of Marketplace Morning Report. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Ethan Lindsay: The German circus. Two German circus families got into a fight this week. Police had to break it up, they confiscated knives, guns and a baton. One guy had a gunshot to the leg.
Gagliano: I guess this is what they mean by family entertainment. Why did they fight?
Lindsay: They are differing accounts. Some reports say they aren’t really sure. One report said it was over who got to tent space first.
Gagliano: I think it’s over, they’ve just finally packed one too many clowns into that little car. They were just like, we’ve had enough!
Lindsay: Get your shoe out of my face!
Ryssdal: There’s more where that came from. Their podcast is called the Dinner Party Download.
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