NPR: Really Need an Excuse? You Can Buy One

Really Need an Excuse? You Can Buy One

My dad always used to tell me that if you can find a need that people have and fill it, you can have a successful business.

I guess that John Liddell, the businessman who co-founded the Excused Absence Network, is an example of that approach. He will sell you excuses to get out of work or school. (And all excuses are on special right now, only $19.95!) You can get a fake jury summons or a fake doctor's note. But the site says it's just for entertainment purposes. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)

Could this site fill a need for you, or do you already have excuse-making down? (Please share any good stories.) Or, even better, do you have any suggestions for other ethically questionable but potentially profitable businesses to start?

That's all for this week. You can e-mail us at newsblog@npr.org.

6:11 PM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Have we become that incapable of being creative and imaginative as Americans that we can't even generate our own excuses of avoidance? When we read more books or listened to radio programs, we were kick-started into imaginative thinking and creative visualization. I'm not knocking high tech, but with visual media, T.V., PCs, mind-blowing special effects in films, and such, providing "canned imagination via the directors', actors', and artists' interpretation of their presentations, we simply become a blank disk on which all this "canned creativity" is imposed - like buckets of paint tossed up on a wall. No wonder all we can come up with is:
1. The dog ate it.
2. I have friends coming in from out of town.
3. I'm not feeling well.
4. I have a flat tire.
5. My child has a fever.
6. The stock market fell dramatically, which is inducing such a sudden,servere asthmatic reaction in me that I must stay home sequestered within my portable oxygen tent.

WHOA! WHERE DID THAT LAST ONE COME FROM?

Sent by Carolyn Nord | 4:43 PM ET | 10-28-2007

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