Sunday, August 15, 2010

And You Thought Those Adults Wearing Silly Bandz Were Ridiculous

My 4-1/2-year-old informed us that he wants to to have a lemonade stand one of these days. Just about every kid ends up selling lemonade at some point during the hot, boring summers of childhood. If I recall correctly, my own attempt at this rite of passage wasn't a huge success: I was terribly bored sitting there waiting for customers and gave up after selling just a few cups. After factoring in the cost of the lemonade mix and plastic cups, plus the four customers I served before quitting, my parents probably ended up losing a couple bucks.

Of course, some kids have what it takes and are more successful than I was, but I've never thought of a lemonade stand as a serious money-making endeavor. However, Michael Orobona, a 40-year-old from Brooklyn, begs to differ. This strange man runs a lemonade stand outside his apartment in Park Slope, and apparently, he actually makes decent money. "If I tell you how much I make, people won't want to buy from me anymore," he told The New York Times (in today's Styles section).

He sounds like a serious slacker to me. Mr. Orobona claims to be a "restaurant consultant" but as we all know, anything with "consultant" in the title means you are basically unemployed. While I admire his entrepreneurial spirit--hey, a guy's gotta pay his rent--there are some kid things that should be reserved for kids ONLY.

Running a lemonade stand is one of them.

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