February 4, 2005

$900 Cookies

This is unbelievable. From Yahoo/Reuters bq. Girls fined for giving neighbour cookies A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 (480 pounds) for the distress a neighbour said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts. bq. The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbour Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day. And I was just talking about that with this entry:
Welcome to the new Age of Anxiety where Western culture is beset by so much dread that “bad habits have been turned into diseases, foibles are afflictions and sins are syndromes,” says writer Jon Winokur.
Back to the story: bq. Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday. bq. The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbours on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: "Have a great night". bq. The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking. bq. It reported that six neighbours wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies. Christ on a corndog -- two teenage neighbors leave cookies on your doorstep and you think you have a heart attack? The next morning? Grow some ovaries Wanita. You are 49, you should know better. Posted by DaveH at February 4, 2005 6:31 PM