This isn't exactly on-topic, but some of you may be interested to hear that the owner of a strip club in Atlanta is swearing under oath that Bill Gates frequents his establishment. Well, okay, that may be overstating it a little, but according to The Register, Steve Kaplan is currently "under scrutiny by the U.S. Government" because his business, The Gold Club, may be linked to "pimps, the Mafia, and fraud," so in a desperate bid to show that his joint is respectable, he's unveiled a clientele list of so-called "wholesome" characters that come by to unwind. Among those celebs is none other than Billy G. himself.

Now, whether you choose to believe Kaplan's claim or not is entirely up to you. For what it's worth, Microsoft was "unable to comment on what Gates did in his spare time," which certainly isn't a denial, but at the same time, one would think that Bill is plenty rich enough to order a slew of his own strippers instead of having to fly all the way out to Atlanta every time he wants to watch some jiggling naked flesh. If you do suspect that Bill likes to hang out in an "upmarket hostess joint for professionals who want to relax" (he can certainly afford the $10 cover charge and $5 beers, at any rate), then you have to wonder about these alleged links to organized crime; apparently the government claims "the club is in league with the Mafia, supplies prostitutes to club visitors, cons customers out of thousands of dollars, and has deals with corrupt police officers." Hmmm... conning customers out of thousands of dollars is what Tiggers do best; at least, billionaire Tiggers who hail from Redmond. Sounds like Bill may be more than just a "customer" in that establishment. Has anyone really traced the ownership back past Steve Kaplan?

We'll leave it as an exercise for the viewer to spin a conspiracy theory around this strip club revelation that includes the Mafia and corrupt law enforcement and Microsoft's apparent immunity to federal antitrust laws. As for us, the big mystery preying on our minds is why anybody in his right mind would actually list Bill Gates as an example of a "wholesome" customer. Um, does anyone remember that whole "Redmond Justice" thing? Or is this a case of "innocent until proven guilty on appeal"? Justice may be blind, but the public has the attention span of a two-year-old on speed...