New York Minute

I wish I was in New York because:
(a) It is summer there - I have experienced a NY summer, and while I may have dripped in sweat, boy did I love it!
(b) There are hot dog stands everywhere. I love hot dogs. I have a disgusting habit of buying hot dog kabanas and eating them uncooked. Some people think it's gross, I think it's delicious.
(c) You walk a lot. I love walking. It's seriously too cold (and dark) for much of that right now where I am.
(d) Lady Gaga goes to the baseball in her underwear.
(e) It's New York. And stuff like this happens like it's normal:



On the other hand, New Yorkers do have to deal with the ever-present threat of bedbugs. Hollister, in Soho, was closed the other day due to an infestation of the blood-sucking fiends. However, it didn't close down as quickly as it should have. An enraged (and bedbitten) employee slammed the company, stating:

The four story flagship store is known for hiring models and having them stand around the store scantily clad to help market the brand. The first report of bedbug bites in the store was three weeks ago by and employee and a manager, but that was ignored. On Tuesday the 29th, an employee found that she had been bitten, and also found a live bedbug and an exoskeleton on her borrowed Hollister outfit. All of the employees were forced to continue working even though more and more bugs were being discovered.

Multiple employees were covered in bites. Hollister was more concerned about losing money than the health and safety of their hundreds of employees and thousands of customers. If they were concerned in the least, the store would have been shut down the moment the first bugs were discovered. Just today they closed the store down, but who knows how many employees and customers were exposed to the outbreak in the past three weeks, only jeopardizing the rest if the stores in the area as bedbugs spread like wildfire.

Bedbugs only feed at night, and if you've ever been inside Hollister, you know that it is almost completely dark. I'm sure you can imagine the store has become a bedbug breeding ground since it was first exposed. Go Hollister!


It is expected that multiple lawsuits will be a consequence of Hollister's delayed action, as the little critters love nothing more than to burrow into the folds of people's clothes - unsuspecting customers are therefore believed to have unwittingly dragged the bugs back to their homes. Eeeuuuwww... Bedbugs are known for their resilience (surviving up to one year between feedings) and the difficult in eliminating them completely.

Read all about it here.