Sunday, April 1, 2012

Yes, your lordship

Sometimes things go on sale that really shouldn't be on sale.  Sometimes you can buy a politician to get legislation you want (looking at you, Disney) and sometimes you can buy human organs on the black market.  Other times you can only buy the right to put Lord, Laird, or Lady in front of your name.  That's right, if you aren't satisfied with the pedestrian Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Miss you don't have to settle for years of schooling to get a mere Dr. before your name, just slap down $49.99 and you can own a 30 cm x 30 cm plot of land in Scotland and the title that goes with it.

This is genious marketing.  You sell something practically valueless (random scrubland in Scotland and some paperwork) for real money and the person who buys it gets to have a grand old time telling all their friends they want to be called 'Laird Someguy' for a month or so.  This might be a scam... but even if it is, who cares?  All the buyer wants is plausible deniability anyhow so as long as the paperwork looks legit it doesn't even matter if they are technically entitled to the title or not; nobody official is going to call them on it anyway.

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