In one of the most heart-warming narratives yet to emerge from our economic recovery, Associated Press announces that the Body Shop will begin hiring about 500 strippers. AP quotes owner Salah Almudarris as saying his club will re-open tonight, nearly five months after an electrical fire that devastated it last December. Viewing the Body Shop's phoenix-like resurrection as a kind of one-man stimulus package (call it a pubic works project), Mr. Almudarris noted that the re-opening will create 20 staff jobs while deploying about 50 women a night on his stage.

Mr. Almudarris claims his strippers could earn up $1,000 nightly, and predicts a ripple effect on the local economy — well, on nearby bars at least — since the Body Shop doesn't sell liquor. (That means you, Skybar at the Mondrian!) The club, which has existed for nearly half a century, was immortalized in the Motley Crue song, “Girls, Girls, Girls.”

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