  We formulate and solve the existence problem for Ricci flow on a Riemann
surface with initial data given by a Radon measure as conformal factor. The
theory leads us to a large class of new examples of nongradient expanding Ricci
solitons, including the first example of a nongradient Kaehler Ricci soliton.
It also settles the question of whether a smooth flow for positive time that
attains smooth initial data in a distance metric sense must be smooth down to
the initial time. We disprove this by giving an example of a complete Ricci
flow starting with the Euclidean plane that is not the static solution.
