Tired of strangers in the cafe giving you dirty looks while you're on your cell trying to be heard over the noise of the cappuccino machine? In the middle of a Zoom meeting when the poet at the next table suddenly spills their latte on your laptop? Imagine a soundproof, clear rectangular cubicle where anyone can go to make telephone calls, isolated from the eavesdropping of a bunch of unemployed actors and overcaffeinated retirees. Who wouldn't like a private, quiet spot to conduct important or intimate conversations? A savvy entrepreneur could start the Phone Booth™ business by putting cubicles on urban street corners, or inside coffee shops, malls, airports and other noisy high traffic areas and charging a nominal fee to pay for the booths' installation and upkeep, say 25 cents for every three minutes of use, payable in some sort of digital token. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Did you recently get Xed out of your job by the world's richest man so that he could become the world's richerest man? Or maybe you just finished going hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in order to obtain a degree in history, political science, mathematics or any one of the dozens of fields soon to become dominated by AI "experts" who are even bigger know-it-alls than you can ever be.

Government in Action Call in to the Washington state Department of Licensing, and you'll have the option for Spanish language communication. At least that's...

A discussion with Dave Coverly and Hilary Price about the process of making cartoons, the anatomy of making a funny cartoon and how they discovered the power of cartoons

Shop Till Ewe DropShepherd Dieter Michler had no real answers for why 50 members of his flock split from the 500-sheep herd and made...

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This conversation is excerpted from The Funny Times Podcast, which explores the history of humor — and the relationships and stories the paper has cultivated over the past 40 years in print.

EDITOR'S NOTE: News of the Weird extends greetings for a peaceful and happy new year full of memorable weird moments. While you're ringing in...

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Animal Antics Ray Ray the cat clearly did not want to be left behind when his family left their home in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, for Keene,...

We are constantly being reminded of all the terrible things going on in the world by our news feeds, Substacks, email blasts, and Cousin Rudy, who calls every morning with his latest doomscrolling updates. I am fully aware that the end of the world could be only one bad bowel movement away by our current Commander of the nuclear football...

Animal Antics A black swan nicknamed "Mr. Terminator" was removed from his adopted home in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, on Sept. 30, the Independent reported. The swan,...