Sometimes, an absurdity jumps off the page. Nothing need be added to the news article itself to reveal the pompous self-importance and stupidity of the participants. Here are the first two paragraphs of a story published on MSNBC on 21 March, 2007 (“School Sued Over Socks”). Even the names of the ACLU attorneys on this ludicrous case are appropriately funny.

“In 2005, Toni Kay Scott, a student at Redwood Middle School in California, arrived at school wearing socks with a picture of the Winnie-the-Pooh character, Tigger. She was escorted by a police officer to the principal’s office and placed in in-school suspension because the socks violated her school’s dress code, which restricts students to solid-color clothing, free of logos, in only cotton, chino or corduroy fabrics. After efforts to resolve the dispute proved unsuccessful, Scott, along with five fellow students and the ACLU, is fighting back against the school and challenging the dress code.

“Sharon O’Grady, a litigator in the San Francisco office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and pro bono lawyer for Scott, working in conjunction with the ACLU, said in an interview today, “We are asking the court to hold that the dress code for the Redwood Middle School is unconstitutional and also violates California law and to enjoin the enforcement of the dress code.” The Pillsbury team was headed by Thomas V. Loran, III and also included John E. Janhunen and Alex A.L. Ponce de Leon.”

As Dave Barry wrote in his comedy columns, “I’m not making this stuff up.”