quiz: at what price would you sell out?

This seems awfully low to me. I mean, if the spiders were under some form of anesthesia it’s quite possible I’d eat them just to see what they taste like; that doesn’t mean I come cheap! Besides, it’d take at least twice this just to pay off my creditors at this point, so no, I wouldn’t sell out for this much.

Also, bonus story: GBS was sitting next to some stuffy, titled woman at a dinner party. He hated dinner parties, but he always went, perhaps so he’d have something to complain about, since he did it most entertainingly. Anyhoo, she was boring him silly so he threw out one of those “liven up a party” questions that the social columnists are always suggesting one do, only because it was Shaw, this was what is conventionally known as “a doozie.”

He asked her if she’d sleep with him for three million pounds. She giggled and said she would, ha, ha, and no doubt congratulated herself in her secret heart for the comeback (providing, of course, she was possessed of such an item: the secret heart, that is: which item is, I understand it, not at all common among such people).

Then he asked if she would sleep with him for ten. She replied, “What do you think I am?” 

He responded, of course, “We’ve established that, madam. Now we are negotiating price.”


On Average, You Would Sell Out For


$315,335

At What Price Would You Sell Out?

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Sandy Belle, the Desert Tokyo Rose

Country crooner and proud American Sandy Belle has a message for the troops.

Stolen from Seattle’s SLOG, the Stranger Blog, who were kind enough to compare it to the Donnie Davies video we have here at the ol’ raincoaster blog. Then they hosed my comment, the fuckers!

Nonetheless, we Vancouverites shall rise above it and, like Sandy herself, direct a welcoming wave of the hand down South.

“Now boys, I know you have a job to do and you’re far away from home,
but my girlie parts are turning into deserts of their own.”

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Shebeen Club: Teeny Tome is Livin’ Large!

For immediate release: see also World’s Tiniest Press Release below

 World's tiniest press release

What: The Shebeen Club : Teeny Tome, Living Large!

When: 7-9pm, Tuesday, April 17 (3rd Tuesday of each month)

Where: The Shebeen, behind the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown

Why: Celebrate Shebeen Alumnus Robert Chaplin‘s publication of the World’s Smallest Book: Teeny Ted from Turnip Town!

Who: Contact lorraine.murphy at gmail.com for more information

How(much)? $15 includes dinner and a drink

The Shebeen ClubThis Month: Teeny tomes loom large lately. This week, the literary world welcomed its smallest member, as nanoscientists Li Yang and Karen Kavanagh from Simon Fraser University, together with independent Vancouver publisher Robert Chaplin and author Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, presented their minimasterpiece: Teeny Ted from Turnip Town. At 0.07 by 0.10 millimetres, it’s so small you’d need an electron microscope to read it; at thirty pages, it’s still pretty substantial for a dream book about a turnip tale. Small but perfectly formed, this book has made headlines around the world.

The Shebeen Club will celebrate this ironically monumental moment with readings, door prizes and a writing challenge, all specially miniturized for the occasion. Dinner, however, will be oversized as usual at the Shebeen.

Dress code: miniskirts or skinny ties, but please, no thongs.

The Procedure: Sink into a warm velvet banquette and enjoy our programme: your basic meet-and-mingle from 7-7:30, followed by a riveting, yet brief presentation, followed by Q&A and then breaking up into casual groups for wandering, boozy reminiscences of the time you snubbed Jay McInerney in the airport. A fine dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta from the kitchen of the Irish Heather, plus one glass of wine, beer or pop are included in the $15.
For more information, contact: Lorraine Murphy, raincoaster media ltd www.shebeenclub.com or  lorraine.murphy at gmail.com

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size matters: real estate and roi

McMansionAccording to this veddy interesting article in Slate, the size of a CEO’s house may bear an inverse relationship to the performance of the company’s stock on his watch. If this proves to be true over the entire CEO sector, you can expect hysterical investors to drive Zillow to the top of the web, and Architectural Digest to become a hollow shell of its former self.

And George W. Bush to propose real estate offsets, wherein CEOs in monster McMansions get tax breaks for paying destitute Third Worlders to live eighteen to a room.

In a working paper titled “Where are the Shareholders’ Mansions?David Yermack of New York University and Crocker Liu of Arizona State wonder whether there is a relationship between CEO home-buying behavior and stock performance. (The title is a riff on the classic 1940 investment book Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?.) In doing so, the two academics are invading one of the last preserves of executive privacy, and we should all be very grateful! …

Yermack and Liu insist there’s a solid academic reason to look through the keyholes. They want to figure out if a mansion purchase signals commitment or cashing out. A CEO who buys a 12,000-square-foot mansion could be showing his intent to stay for the long haul and to bust his butt so that he’ll have the cash to pay off the huge mortgage. In which case, you’d expect stocks of the companies where the CEO just bought an obscenely large house to thrive. Buy!

Or the purchase of an absurdly large house could signal entrenchment: The CEO is too comfortable with his position and his personal finances. He has made so much money that he can’t really be bothered with running the company. And the willingness to spend gazillions on a house—not to mention the furnishings, artwork, and baubles to fill it—betokens a general inattentiveness to costs. In which case, you’d expect stocks of the companies where the CEO just bought an obscenely large house to fare poorly. Sell!

Especially if, like me, you know that those CEOs often bought those houses with company-financed and company-guaranteed loans that are contractually obligated to be company-forgiven when the CEO leaves said company for whatever reason including stunning incompetence, mendacity, or criminality.

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PSA: Visual Arts Development Awards applications released

News Release! Spread the Word!
 
April 11, 2007
 
$56,500 IN AWARDS FOR BC ARTISTS AND ARTISANS NOW AVAILABLE
2007 Visual Arts Development Awards applications released

The eleventh annual Visual Arts Development Awards (VADA) is now underway. The Awards assist British Columbia’s emerging or mid-career visual artists and artisans. The initiative is to encourage the development of new skills and techniques. Grants range in size from $3,000 to $5,000. Deadline for receipt of completed applications is Friday, June 29th at 6 p.m.

This award is for emerging or mid-career visual artists and artisans who want to explore a new technique or process that will further their practice and artistic development. Last year, 14 visual artists and artisans from across the province received awards. Their projects included: travelling to Iran to learn skills and techniques of traditional Persian miniature painting; mentoring with a Chilkat weaver to connect the processes of dovetailing, interlocking and drawstring to recreate a full Chillkat dance apron. Learning the fundamentals of garment conception, construction and alteration; learning how to use a Focused Ion Beam to produce work with gallium and other substrates; a self-directed program to learn the linocut printmaking process to incorporate cutting and printing into 2D works; and learning digital technologies such as basic editing, titling, graphics, digitizing video and production methods.

Read more details over the jump! Continue reading