Re: Idea that could really help your business in the long term...

[Marcia Bell <danvarner@worldnet.att.net>]

Ray Stanford wrote:
> 
> I'm a fellow Texan (expatriated in Maryland for 12 years) who knows
> how big-hearted Texans can be, so I've a suggestion that may seem
> foolish at first sight (but should prove otherwise, in the long term):
> 
>     You seek corporate donor(s) to provide "Z-rex" for the
> Smithsonian.  Please consider this: If you would announce publicly
> that you will forego all (above your corporate expenses related
> thereto) of what would otherwise be your profit in this account, if
> sponsor(s) will just pay the actual owners' share of your asking price
> (and if that happens), Jim, that would be "a thousand stars in your
> crown".   Few persons in life ever get or take the chance to set such
> an example.  Surely it would create a goodwill toward you and
> Fossilnet that money could never buy -- to say nothing of a solid
> basis for professional respectability by institutions to which, in the
> future, Fossilnet might turn for investment capital.
> 
>     Not only that, but it would make you feel mighty, mighty good,
> "deep down", as my sweet Texan mother used to say, especially if you
> can do it just because it's the right thing to do.
> 
>     Furthermore, I think such a magnanimous gesture on your part would
> virtually assure a corporate gift of the purchase amount to the
> Smithsonian (helped along by proper media attention).  Heck, you
> mighty even make the front of TIME or NEWSWEEK.  :-)  Whatever, you'd
> certainly win the applause of all fellow Texans, millions of
> Americans, and even of many paleontologists, worldwide.
> 
>     Do this, and you will personify the epitome of the largess for
> which the best of Texans are known.  I know you've got it in you.
> Find it.  It is a priceless treasure.
> 
>     Thanks for listening, and, by the way, sniff a few of those Texas
> bluebonnets for every expatriate when they explode over the Texas hill
> country this Spring.  Your contribution as proposed above would be
> like the near-intoxicating aroma of Texas bluebonnets: Never to be
> forgotten.  Always loved.
> 
>     Ray Stanford
> 
> 
        Thank you, Ray, for a truly heartfelt and moving post. My eyes
moistened at your yearning for Texas bluebonnets. I too am an
expatriate. But I'm from Minnesota, and early spring there brings the
fragrance
of Skunk Cabbage, a bloom perhaps more apropos to the topic at hand and
to anyone who would advertise the sale of fossils to interior decorators
on this list.
        Dan Varner