[828] in Humor
HUMOR: Only in CA...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Sun Apr 16 21:31:11 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 21:28:51 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 95 10:24:04 PDT
From: Connie_Kleinjans@Novell.COM (Connie Kleinjans)
This is too good not to share immediately.
From dinucci_ellen@GSB.Stanford.EDU
- -------------------------------------------------------------
PALO ALTO (BCN)
A Palo Alto enterpreneur is going into business to offer people a
place to argue without getting into trouble.
Peter Kelso -- who identifies himself as a musician, disk jockey
and chef -- said today that he still has to go through Palo Alto's
architectural review process and do a trademark search. But he has
already taken legal steps to do business under the name ``The Argument
Shoppe.''
``It will be a place for people to come in and have an argument so
that instead of people going into traffic and having an argument they
can come in here,'' he said.
The 29-year-old Kelso said the business, to be operated initially
out of a booth somewhere in downtown Palo Alto, will serve people who
don't usually have an opportunity to involve themselves in non-
destructive disagreement.
``People may have negative energy that they're carrying around, or
they want to argue with the boss, but they don't want to get fired,''
Kelso said. ``They can come in here and we'll be the boss.''
He said his business, which was partly inspired by a comedy skit
he saw on a ``Monty Python'' television program, will offer customers
discussion points or a mediator for their own arguments, or even
someone to argue with, if necessary.
While his staff won't have any special psychological training,
Kelso said that may make people more comfortable when they come in for an
argument because they won't have to admit there may be something wrong with
them.
``Coming into the Argument Shoppe, people don't have to feel bad and
it doesn't cost you $100 an hour,'' Kelso said. His initial rate will
be around 50 cents per minute, although he said he may charge more for
special ``guest arguers.''
Kelso said extra encouragement for his business came from his own
personal observations.
``I had a friend who liked to argue constantly with people, and I
thought that with this energy and this nonstop argument, maybe I could
tap into this whole nonstop reservoir,'' Kelso said.
