Conservative. Idaho. Software engineer. Historian. Trying to prevent Idiocracy from becoming a documentary.
Email complaints/requests about copyright infringement to clayton @ claytoncramer.com. Reminder: the last copyright troll that bothered me went bankrupt.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." -- Rom. 8:28
Money doesn't make you smarter, it just gives you the ability to fully express the depth and breadth of your stupidity. I goth this story third hand. A Bonsai nurseryman in Los Angeles had a four foot tall two hundred year old redwood bonsai tree on display. Nicholas Cage came in and wanted to buy it for Lisa Marie Presley, for whom he had a thing at the time. The owner refused, saying it was a two hundred year old tree, and he knew nothing about its care, so he was going to merely kill it in short order. Cage insisted, and the nurseryman named an outlandish price. $25,000, which Cage paid. Sure enough, two months later, it was dead. Imagine someone doing that with, say, the Ghent altarpiece or some painting or sculpture that is displayed in the Louvre.
One fellow I went to school with got picked as lead actor for a SF flic; he made tons of money. Up until then he'd been poorer than poor, and often was pressed for rent money. So now, all his money worries were over, right?
Nope. He took the whole cast & crew out to dinner, often; he bought expensive presents for everyone around, he took limosines wherever he went... when he finally came back to school, he had a new stereo system, worth about $350. That was it. That's all he had, after being paid close to $300,000.
Oh, he also had a suitcase full of posters for the movie. When I saw the film, it was obvious that he'd been dubbed: his voice wasn't on the sound track. The movie sank without a trace.
All in all, I learned a lot more than he did from his experience.
Robin Williams said that cocaine was God's way of saying you made too much money
ReplyDeleteMoney doesn't make you smarter, it just gives you the ability to fully express the depth and breadth of your stupidity.
ReplyDeleteI goth this story third hand. A Bonsai nurseryman in Los Angeles had a four foot tall two hundred year old redwood bonsai tree on display. Nicholas Cage came in and wanted to buy it for Lisa Marie Presley, for whom he had a thing at the time. The owner refused, saying it was a two hundred year old tree, and he knew nothing about its care, so he was going to merely kill it in short order. Cage insisted, and the nurseryman named an outlandish price. $25,000, which Cage paid. Sure enough, two months later, it was dead. Imagine someone doing that with, say, the Ghent altarpiece or some painting or sculpture that is displayed in the Louvre.
Nicolas Cage is in some ways typical of actors.
ReplyDeleteOne fellow I went to school with got picked as lead actor for a SF flic; he made tons of money. Up until then he'd been poorer than poor, and often was pressed for rent money. So now, all his money worries were over, right?
Nope. He took the whole cast & crew out to dinner, often; he bought expensive presents for everyone around, he took limosines wherever he went... when he finally came back to school, he had a new stereo system, worth about $350. That was it. That's all he had, after being paid close to $300,000.
Oh, he also had a suitcase full of posters for the movie. When I saw the film, it was obvious that he'd been dubbed: his voice wasn't on the sound track. The movie sank without a trace.
All in all, I learned a lot more than he did from his experience.