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From: twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: April Fool?
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Date: 17 Apr 91 16:53:18 GMT
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wes@thor.srl.caltech.edu (Wes Boudville) writes:
>	I read that Infoworld article. Like many readers, I'm sure,
>I got a chuckle out of it. A lot of us are aware that media
>articles dated 1 April should be regarded with a grain of salt
>[like the story one year about Big Ben going digital]. Personally, I
>regard such articles as a refreshing and harmless sign of creativity.
>	As a non-American, I find your comment to be a classic
>glimpse into the litigious nature of US society.

I have to agree with you there. It seems that as the days goes by,
there are stranger and stranger cases in the Amermican courts. People
are being sued from anything to everything. There was a joke about
this I read somewhere (can't recall where). The relevant part of the
story goes something like this. A lady trips over a branch on the
sidewalk in front of a building. She sues the gardener of the building
for malpractice, sues the owner of the building for negligence, sues
the city for pollution, sues the county for lack of control over its
cities, sues the State for not increasing the city spending for the
purchase of one more street cleaner, and sues President Bush for not
buying that Nintendo Danny wants so that he can actually be doing
something.

>Go ahead with your lawsuit. I suspect it will be thrown out
>of court.

I'm not so sure about that. I have seen some strange decisions before.
You know what they say in the US, if you have enough money to pay for
a good lawyer, you can get away with murder (or seek refuge in
Canada). :)

But come now. A joke is a joke. We all know what April fools mean.  I
thought Americans are supposed to be funloving, free spirited group of
fellows. Not to mention freedom of speech and all that jazz.

Thomas.