Lest you be focusing too much on the more serious subjects in the financial press, such as Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) merit as an investment or Netflix's (NASDAQ:NFLX) competitive position, here's a brief recap of some recent and weird financial news:
- If you've ever doubted that there's a market for everything, click over to breastloans.com, where you can learn all about loans available to pay for cosmetic surgery. Will big-name lenders such as Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) or Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) get in on these niche markets in the future?
- Meanwhile, according to MarginalRevolution.com, "One of the hottest bars in the Chinese city of Nanjing sports only a sofa, a few tables, and tissue paper -- a lot of tissue paper. The AFP news service reports that the city's first 'cry bar,' where customers can sit and cry for $6 per hour, is growing in popularity. Owner Luo Jun says he opened the bar when clients of his last business said they often wanted to cry but didn't know when or where it would be appropriate to do so."
- Of course, not all weird business ideas are good ones. Consider Yuolanda Taylor of Michigan, who sold rocks to rioters in Benton Harbor for $1 or $5 each (depending on size). She made $70 but apparently quit after being clobbered by a rock. She also faces up to 10 years in prison.
- The WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) company prides itself on the many uses of its flagship product. But it's not widely owned in the holy Indian city of Varanasi (formerly known as Benares). Perhaps that's why Varanasi is reportedly going through 600,000 condoms per day, as weavers rub them on their looms for lubrication.
- Some jobs are tougher than others. Consider poor Ahmad al-Jobori, who is chief of tourism in Iraq. He's working hard to dissuade people from touring his nation. Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, he said, "I understand all about wanting to have an adventure, but Iraq could be a one-way trip. This is just not a place for tourists."
- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has gone after mutual funds, drug companyGlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), and insurance companies, among many others. But after championing individual investors many times, he's now coming to the rescue of. restroom attendants in fancy restaurants. Apparently, many of them, placed by a firm called Royal Flush, not only have been unpaid but also have sometimes paid for the chance to collect tips in bathrooms.
- In Singapore, a 19-year-old recently set a record by stuffing three hamburgers in his mouth at one time. This might bode well for American burger dispensers. Perhaps Wendy's (NYSE:WEN) and its peers might, through some clever advertising campaign, start a burger-stuffing craze in America. It won't be pretty, but it could be profitable.
If you think these stories are just plain silly and you crave some serious stock investment ideas, check out our suite of stock and mutual fund newsletters, which deliver promising recommendations each month. Or just curl up with an informative and amusing Fool book.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of Netflix.
