Update in the living room flour story: Husband Vince Napoli threatens to press charges against People Liking People. Bonus: Breastfeeding Flashmob

You may remember back in November this video that went viral for a few days:




Basically the mother, Mary Napoli, had thrown flour all over the house and then made it look like her kids had "gotten into the bag of flour and made a mess". But almost immediately speculation began that the whole thing was set up - the flour was spread just a little too evenly around the living room in places where small children would not be able to reach, and a half-second glimpse of the mother showed she was actually covered in flour herself.

We wrote a little entry about it and poked fun at the whole hoax, comparing it to the balloon boy incident. We also tried to be thorough in the information that we presented, and included Mary and her husband Vince Napoli's contact information. Evidently displaying publicly accessible phone numbers on the internet is a major crime, and People Liking People now faces being fired from the internet. We've been contacted by Vince Napoli himself who is threatening to do just that and also get his lawyers involved. See the comments below he left on our site:






Ok Vince, you have your lawyer look at it. He'll call you a fucking dumbass for wasting his time. You might as well file a lawsuit against Spokeo.com while you're at it too. OMG, an entire website dedicated to contact information? Somebody call 911!

But really, in a way we feel bad for the Napoli's. They wanted a little fame just like we all do, but instead of actually accomplishing something worthwhile they....threw flour in their living room. Come on guys, you'll have to do a little better than that.

Update: Mary Napoli is at it again. A friend of People Liking People has brought it to our attention that the mother was kicked out of the Somerset Mall in Troy, Michigan last week for get this: a "breast-feeding flash mob."



From nydailynews.com:

Mall security shut down a group of women about to launch into a breast-feeding flash mob at an upscale shopping center in Troy, Mich.

The group was led by Mary Napoli, who was confronted by a security officer when she sat down to nurse her 1-year-old son, Patch.com reported.

It always seems like the people who don't have the capacity to feel shame are the ones that need it the most. What an embarrassment this has to be for husband Vince Napoli, who's just trying to quietly hold down his job at WADL TV. We're definitely starting to see a pattern here with attention whoring activities involving their kids. It's one thing to want to stand for a cause (by the way, breastfeeding is allowed in the mall, just not protests or demonstrations) or try to become a celebrity on Youtube, but when you're shaping young lives in that environment it ends up hurting us all in the long run. We can only hope that they end up seeking the help they so desperately need.

Kid on bike crashes, Mom gets pissed

The title of the video says it's grandma but it looks more like mom to us. The kids are out having fun in the street with a bike ramp when one of them crashes after going up the ramp. "That's it! That's it!" mom yells, taking away one of the ramps and ruining all the fun. How are they ever going to get good, Mom, if you never let them practice? At least all the kids are wearing helmets, which is pretty rare as most kids think it takes away cool points. Where they went wrong was doing it right in front of their home. Next time go to a friend's house whose parents don't give a shit.

Idiots staple their tongues to board in an attempt to fit in

Wow this is just sad. What looks to be either a fraternity or sports hazing event, two guys stick out their tongues as a third guy staples them to a board on the table. A fourth member bleeding from the arm is then tasked with removing the staples. You know, in these kids' minds they probably feel like they just made that transition from boy to man but in reality they just lost every ounce of dignity they had left. And while stunts like this are usually intended to prove one's toughness, they often come off feeling a little....gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But in many of these hazing incidents we can't help but notice the homoerotic undertones, like this story where am Alpha Delta Omega fraternity member at Hartwick College was spanked with a wooden paddle by his peers. I don't know about you all, but when we were in college spanking another guy with a wooden paddle or messing around with boys' tongues was the last thing on our mind.

School turns to advertising on report cards for revenue

With the economy being in the state that it's been for the past few years, people and businesses have had to get creative when it comes to making ends meet. Schools have also been experiencing financial setbacks as well, including the Jefferson County school district in Colorado which is currently facing $70 million in budget cuts. But the folks at Jefferson County have come up with a plan to make up for at least some of those cuts: advertisements on report cards.

From denver.cbslocal.com:

Some parents in Jefferson County won’t only see their child’s grades on their report cards. They’ll also see advertising.
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The ad will appear along the bottom of every elementary school report card for the next three years.

Is it wrong to mix capitalism and advertising with our public education system? Some seem to think this is crossing the line. To alleviate concerns, the school district has currently restricted the advertising to a nonprofit organization known as CollegeInvest. But what's to come in the future, will we be seeing Coke and Pepsi ads on report cards further down the line?

One thing that doesn't seem quite right is the discrepancy between the budget cuts the school is facing and the amount of money these ads are going to pull in, which is a puny $30,000 a year. $30,000 a year is less than the average teacher makes, so....great, these ads on the report cards won't even cover 1 teacher's salary and will barely scratch the surface of the $70 million they're facing in budget cuts. Is it really worth all the bitching and moaning? I say if you're going to do this, go all out. Let's get all kinds of advertising up and down the hallways of the school - advertisers can bid on specific spots, some areas going for more due to the amount of foot traffic. And how about those school buses? City buses have long earned revenue by putting ads on the sides and backside, how about schools doing the same?

And it begs an interesting question, are advertisements harmful to kids? Are they really harmful to anyone? We live in a capitalistic society and as much as we look at advertising as something evil, many of the services we take for granted depend on it almost entirely. I say let's give it a shot, just as long as we don't have advertising reps swarming into schools the way we see the pharmaceutical reps in the doctors offices.