At Least My Rented Mom Loves Me

Recently eaten: meatless lasagna Recent annoyance: everything seems to be going haywire in advance of the Inauguration crowds (water main breaks, traffic, suspicious vehicles etc.)

This turns my deep-seated fear that my parents have been secretly paying my friends for years on its head. What if I was paying my own friends to hang out with me and laugh at my stupid jokes? Isn't this the premise of many a teen movie where the handsome jock gets paid or accepts a bet to date the dorky girl?

And then there's this guy at Rent-a-pal.

Rent-a-friend in Japan (via BBC News)
In Japan, now back in recession, the economic situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent months. But the Japanese still like to use their money to have fun, as Duncan Bartlett has been finding out.

Lola - or Rora - to give her a slightly more Japanese pronunciation - is a beauty and she knows it.

Customers pay by the hour for her company. Usually they just want to stroke her, but as a special treat for favoured clients, she will lie back in a chair, close her eyes and pose for photographs.

Lola is a Persian cat who works at the Ja La La Cafe in Tokyo's bustling Akihabara district. It is one of a growing number of Cat Cafes in the city which provide visitors with short but intimate encounters with professional pets.