There is no Santa Claus, Lassie was played by nine different dogs over the years and, according to a recent lawsuit filed in New York, there isn’t any ginger in Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

From USA Today:

In the federal lawsuit filed July 10 in Buffalo, Julie Fletcher contends that Canada Dry and its parent company, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. are misleading customers. "In truth, DPSG’s soft drink is not made from real ginger," reads the lawsuit filed by Fletcher, who lives in Bolivar, Allegany County.

"Instead, Canada Dry Ginger Ale is made from carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, preservatives and 'natural flavors,' i.e., a flavor compound comprised predominately of flavor extracts not derived from ginger, and a minuscule amount of a ginger flavor extract."

Nothing is sacred.

Apparently, Fletcher’s beef with the beverage is that she’d been buying it for her kids to drink whenever they got sick, assuming that the ginger in the drink’s name meant there was ginger in its bottle. The vendetta she swore against Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc began when she learned that “…he products that she purchased were not made from real ginger, but were instead made from a minuscule amount of a ginger flavor extract, which does not contain any of the health benefits of real ginger."

Oh, the rage.

Look, Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine and 7-Up came spiked with lithium citrate up until 1948 (it was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda. They, along with ginger ales, were served up as tonics at the soda shops baked into pharmacies back in the late 19th and early 20th century. Read the rest

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow

After "a month and almost 200 e-mails," Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick succumbed to an interview with Johnny Depp at his London home to discuss how the 55-year-old actor lost nearly all of his $650M fortune. The piece was devised by his lawyer in an effort to put Depp and his financial woes in a positive light, instead Rodrick compared Depp to a late-stage Marlon Brando and detailed the eccentricities he witnessed over a 72-hour period. The longform interview is a brutal portrait of a man who's suing the people who once handled his money.

It's estimated that Depp has made $650 million on films that netted $3.6 billion. Almost all of it is gone. He's suing The Management Group, run by his longtime business manager, Joel Mandel, and his brother Robert for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud...

The Mandels categorically deny all wrongdoing and are countersuing, alleging that Depp breached his oral contract with the company. The suit suggests that Depp has a $2-million-a-month compulsory-spending disorder, offering bons mots like "Wine is not an investment if you drink it as soon as you buy it."...

Rodrick's interview with Depp was published Wednesday and by Friday Deadline was reporting that it did him no favors in an article titled, Johnny Depp Loses Bid To Delay $25M Fraud Trial On Heels Of Train Wreck Rolling Stone Profile.

They describe Depp's legal troubles as so:

Now battling ex-bodyguards who claim drug abuse and owed pay and a countersuit from his former longtime attorney too, Depp first sued The Management Group back in January 2017.

Fortinte has eclipsed the previously reigning PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and now PUBG believes that success has come at the expense of their copyrights. So here comes the lawsuit! Read the rest

In January, we let you know that Playboy had sued us. On Valentine's Day, a court tossed their ridiculous complaint out, skeptical that Playboy could even amend it. Playboy didn't bother to try.

We are grateful this is over. We are grateful for the wonderful work of the EFF, Durie Tangri, and Blurry Edge, our brilliant attorneys who stood up to Playboy's misguided and imaginary claims. We are glad the court quickly saw right through them.

Playboy damaged our business. This lawsuit cost our small team of journalists, artists and creators time and money that would otherwise have been focused on Boing Boing's continued mission to share wonderful things.

We are glad the legal system has reaffirmed that linking is legal.

Here is a unicorn:

(Unicorn courtesy of Trolli) Read the rest

Not known for making the most exciting motorcycles, BMW has triumphed over a lawsuit claiming one of their bikes left a man with a 2 day long erection. This via the Marin Independent Journal:

Wolf claimed he suffered an acute case of priapism -- a painfully prolonged erection -- after riding his 1993 BMW motorcycle for two hours. He claimed the vibrations in the "ridge-like" motorcycle seat caused the condition that lasted several days, so he sued BMW North America and the seat manufacturer, Corbin-Pacific Inc.

The lawsuit claimed product liability, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Wolf said he was forced to seek treatment at Marin General Hospital and then with other specialists.

On Tuesday -- in a 14-page decision laced with medical language about Doppler ultrasounds, tumescence and aspiration of the corposa cavernosa -- a three-judge 1st District Court of Appeal panel affirmed a San Francisco Superior Court decision to dismiss the case.

The judges found that Wolf's appeal "fails to comply with the rules of appellate procedure" by failing to cite the relevant cases or statutes, and it "contains no intelligible argument." The panel ordered Wolf to pay the defendants' costs on appeal, a sum likely to be many tens of thousands of dollars.

A two hour ride on my motorcycle generally only leaves my hands hurting, however I do not have a Corbin seat.

Note: the motorcycle pictured above is a mid-70s BMW R90S and not the 1993 hard-on inducing model described in the lawsuit. Read the rest

Pastor Troy Tucker is suing Ozark, Missouri's Lambert’s Cafe, billed as the "Home of Throwed Rolls," after a flying roll allegedly hit her in the eye and lacerated her cornea. Read the rest

According to The Tampa Bay Times, Circuit Judge Pamela Campbell said on Monday that she will permit Hulk Hogan one "plain bandana" during his trial against Gawker for posting excerpts from a secretly-taped sex video. "This is not going to be a carnival," she said several times. Read the rest