>--- Chuck0 <chuck at tao.ca> wrote
>>
>> Here's a modest proposal: Given that whenever Alan
>> Greenspan opens his
>> mouth the stock market does something crazy, why
>> don't they just take
>> him, stuff him, and set up one of those
>> European-style bell tower clocks
>> at the NYSE. On the hour, the bell would toll and
>> out would come little
>> Alan, encased in Lucite. The loudspeaker system
>> would play some of his
>> greatest hits and the market would be inspired to go
>> up again.
>
>Wayyyy behind time ... I'm absolutely sure that at
>least one of the hopefuls for the Republican
>nomination made this very suggestion during their
>debates.
Financial Times; Jan 6, 2000
During a debate among Republican presidential candidates last month, it fell to Senator John McCain of Arizona to summarise many people's feelings about Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve. "I would not only reappoint Mr Greenspan," Mr McCain said, "but if Mr Greenspan should die, God forbid, I would do like they did in the movie Weekend at Bernie's.I would prop him up and put a pair of dark glasses on him."
In this 1989 film, two young hustlers, far down on the corporate ladder, win an invitation to their boss's sumptuous beach house for the weekend, only to find on arrival that he has died. Rather than ruin the fun, they prop him up in a chair in a pair of sunglasses - and the party goes on as none of the other guests are the wiser.