Friday Snippets and Soundbites

We're back! Snippets and Soundbites took a break over the holidays (just like the ec staff), but we're back at work and back to bringing you your weekly doses of all things random. Are you ready? Here we go!

• Remember that judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 MILLION over a lost pair of pants? Yeah, he's back in the news. Apparently, he's not giving up. Roy Pearson filed a petition with the D.C. Court of Appeals, requesting the case be reheard—this time by a nine-judge panel. He's basing his case on the dry cleaners' promise of "satisfaction guaranteed." Is this fight ever going to end? Wouldn't it be easier to just go buy a new pair of pants and find a new dry cleaner? What would you do? Weigh in in the comments section. Read more here.

• Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States on January 20, but did you know he's also a food critic? Well, sort of. Apparently before Obama ran for president and was living primarily in Chicago, he and his wife were well-known for dining in some of the best restaurants. Presumedly, that's why he was asked to appear on Check, Please!, a Chicago public television restaurant review show. Obama praises the Dixie Kitchen restaurant, a down-home food eatery. The episode was one of the first taped and never aired. Clips from the show have recently appeared on the Internet. Read more here.

• Sure, the Beatles are popular. Sure, they revolutionized rock music. But we're not sure any of us realized just how popular they are in . . . Norway. Yep, Norwegians seem to be big Beatles fans, which was why it was so disheartening for fans when a Norwegian public radio network was forced to scrap plans for 200-plus episodes due to contract issues. Each show would have centered on one Beatles' song and detailed the history behind it. Even though the Beatles' music company, Apple, has yet to release the band's catalog for download, the Norwegian network thought they had found a loophole that would allow them to air the podcasts. Sadly, they hadn't and Norwegian fans will have to wait a little longer. Read more here.