Net surfers8217; appetite feeds strange sites

LONDON JUNE 10: Did you know that Fox TV has decreed that there should be no more Catholic jokes on The Simpsons? Apparently the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights put the heat on Fox and, henceforth, Homer will have to curb his prejudices. The scriptwriters are reportedly 8220;really angry8221; at this infringement of their creative freedom.

And did you hear about the middle-aged Arizona couple who claimed in court last week that a secret video of them having sex 8220;indoors and in bed8221; was later screened on the Net? Their lawyer was incandescent about it. 8220;They have a family,8221; he fumed. And I expect you8217;d missed the story about the city that can8217;t find its time capsule. Apparently municipal officials in Livermore, California, buried it 25 years ago beneath a city park. It wasn8217;t supposed to be opened until 2019, but, fearing that the contents might be rotting, the mayor and others got shovels to dig it up. If it8217;s any consolation, I missed these stories too, for they all appeared in American localnewspapers. Fortunately, there is a guy called Jim Romenesko who has an insatiable appetite for these amazing publications. He puts a digest of what he finds every day on his Obscure Store site obscurestore .com. Romenesko is clearly a glutton for punishment: he once compiled a book entitled Death Log from six months8217; coroners8217; reports.

What motivates him to hack out his dispatches day in, day out, is a mystery. Clearly, compiling it involves a lot of work, and there8217;s no obvious money in it. His site gets a lot of hits but doesn8217;t carry advertising. And the fine print suggests that Romenesko has to take a day job as a newspaper reporter to pay the rent and his ISP subscription. And there are plenty more like him out there.