Stories & Lifestyle: The USA – land of the freaks and humorists

While working on this newsletter, we continuously come across the most extraordinary stories and people and we don't want to keep that from you. So we compiled a little selection below.

In the small town of Oak Lawn near Chicago, the mayor came up with an extraordinary idea on how to get the people of his town to actually stop at the stop signs. Because, according to some media reports, it is quite usual for most people in Oak Lawn to simply overlook those red traffic signs. The mayor would like to change that and decided that humor is the best strategy. So beneath 50 stop signs, he had second ones installed with little messages reading "Stop...and smell the roses," or "Stop...in the name of love." "I thought it might make people smile and take notice," the mayor said.

In contrast to this rather relaxed attitude, an administrative law judge from Washington DC clearly didn't feel like laughing when a dry cleaning company lost his pants. Roy L. Pearson sued the company for $67 million (!) and focused his lawsuit on advertisement signs by the dry cleaner's reading "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Same Day Service," both of which didn't apply in his case and thus represented fraud. The judge responsible for the case, however, could not be swayed and the trial ended on June 25, 2007 with a ruling in favor of the dry cleaners. We expect Mr. Pearson to appeal this decision and will keep you posted on any further developments.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN AND SATIRE

Some curious developments were also to be observed in the presidential election campaign - TV satirist Stephen Colbert wants to be a US presidential candidate, just for the fun of it. And of course he makes fun of the candidate's rituals - just as it should be, he first of all published his own book: ‘I Am America (And So Can You)' that became a bestseller and in which he explains his political principles. According to the book, Colbert believes gay marriage to be the worst threat to the nation next to socialized medicine, the Dyson vacuum cleaner and the recumbent bicycle. Colbert only wants to run in his home state of South Carolina, but there he wants to run as both a Republican and a Democrat. He has filled out all the necessary forms. And his mentor Jon Stewart is already looking forward to a lot of jokes at President Colbert's expense. Watch Stephen Colbert on this website: http://www.comedycentral.com/search/gsa/index.jhtml?searchterm=stephen+colbert&x=0&y=0

And last but not least, we would like to introduce you to a real jokers enclave - the so-called Conch Republic in Key West, Florida. In April, the citizens celebrated their 25th Independence Day with a drag-queen race, a shell blowing contest, a naval battle with tomatoes and toilet paper - all according to the republic's motto: "The mitigation of world tension through the exercise of humor." While they do have a national anthem, a flag, and people calling themselves Defense Secretary or Prime Minister - the Conch Republic is not a recognized state. The foundation was a reaction of some Americans to over-excessive control by US authorities. In 1982 the US Border Patrol set up an inspection point at the entry point to the Key Islands to search for drugs and illegal immigrants. The people were angry about the traffic jams caused by this and worried that tourists might stay away. They felt they were being treated like a foreign country, so they simply decided to become one. Learn more about the Conch Republic on conchrepublic.com.