Posted on 09/24/2009 5:44:33 PM PDT by don'tspeak4me
Art Buchwald took a percentage of the NET profits in Coming To America, and the studio used accounting tricks to keep that movie as a net loss for years.
-PJ
On reading through this thread, I see I was not the first to reference the Marfa Lights!
In June, we left Pecos around 7am on a Saturday headed west and actually counted vehicles until we got to the I-10......6 semis and 3 passenger cars.
Another great state with wide open spaces is Nevada. Don't remember the Hwy #, but we drove a hundred miles with no services.
Ever read Buchwald’s book about Coming to America? Great story about the accounting tricks and outright fraud used in Hollywood accounting. I would imagine that things are only worse since the advent of the DVD and digital downloads...
In December 2003 my boss and I were driving a sounding rocket payload in a 14-foot Ryder truck from San Antonio to White Sands. We hit mile marker 334 on I-10 (almost *exactly* between Ft. Stockton and Ozona) when the left rear interior tire blew. I gently but immediately pulled off the road and called 1-800-Go-Ryder, or whatever their help number is. (By some miracle, I had a *cell phone signal* at mile #334.) Anyway, the Ryder folks got in touch with a service in Ft. Stockton, and said the truck would arrive with a new tire in three hours. Sure enough, three hours later, the gentleman arrives with a tire and an air-wrench, and we are on the road again 15 minutes later.
We pulled into Las Cruces 3 hours late and met the third member of our party, who flew directly from SA to El Paso and drove the rest of the way. He killed the extra time by watching football in the hotel bar, buying the last two squares in the football pool, and winning $100!
In all seriousness, I am very thankful that we not only got a cell phone signal in the middle of nowhere, but we broke down in temperate December instead of hot-as-blazes July.
Oh, and the launch was a success!
Vandalism is how you gt a $10K bill.
Las Cruces is now the pits. My daughter and I drove through there last December about 5pm heading for Tucson,traffic was terrible!
We were on West 70.....manic drivers.)
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