Thursday, June 15, 2006

Bill Gates is a cheapskate

Bill Gates is stepping down from day-to-day activities at Microsoft in 2008 and I cannot pass up the opportunity to recount my favorite story. According to Robert X. Cringely in the book “Accidental Empires,” Gates was buying ice cream one night at a Seattle convenience store and held up the line searching for a 50-cent coupon. His net worth at the time: $3 billion. Bill Gates disputes it, but in a Wired magazine article, Cringely stood by his account.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've spotted Gates at a couple different events. Once, at a Lyle Lovett concert, and the other time at the film Air Force One.

Both times I had better seats!

- Private Radio

Ookami Snow said...

Well he got rich somehow, and I doubt it was from playing with computers all day.

I think it was from bargain hunting.

Anonymous said...

By the way, Eric, I've noticed you ahven't had so many gloating comments from deluded loons the last week or so. Do you think they might be feeling down about something lately? ;)

Anonymous said...

C'mon, we all know that Rove rolled over on Cheney and the sealed indictment of Cheney is just being held up for '24 business hours' while he cleans out his office. I'm so ecstatic that I'm considering splurging for the Reynolds Heavy Duty Aluminum for my next hat.

Anonymous said...

I've noticed you ahven't had so many gloating comments from deluded loons the last week or so. Do you think they might be feeling down about something lately? ;)

Oh yeah, for sure. Either that, or maybe there's nothing sufficiently, er, delusional and loony to add to Bill Gates eating ice cream, some guy who's breaking up with Jon Stewart, some guy who broke up with "the Left," nostalgia about back when bashing John Kerry could create traction (or mattered), the guy who does Dilbert, some blogger uncovering the scandal that that politicians sometimes just say things, yet more John Kerry nostalgia, The Deadliest Catch....

...but no. You've nailed the psychological profile. We in the loony left are so down about a terrorist death that even Bush doesn't pretend will change the formula, a hit-and-run photo op in Iraq, and the red-hot news that Karl Rove will only be testifying against others instead of for himself, after selling out Libby. Watching this tsunami of "good news" skyrocket Bush's approval rating all the way up to 38% has been almost more than we drooling nutjobs can bear.

Anonymous said...

I take it all back, Eric. Just as hilariously delusional as ever. God, western Mass is great!

Can't wait 'til November, when Dems lose seats to a party led by a President with a 38% approval rating, Rove still hasn't "testified" against anyone in the Plame non-scandal, and we're continuing to kill their terrorist allies in a war that has, er, "nothing to do with the War on Terror"...

Anonymous said...

I take it all back, Eric. Just as hilariously delusional as ever.
Can't wait 'til November, when Dems lose seats to a party led by a President with a 38% approval rating


Beautiful! This isn't just the death of irony. This is abduction, torture, and dumping what's left of irony's body in a Jersey landfill.

Rove still hasn't "testified" against anyone in the Plame non-scandal

See above verb tense: Rove will be testifying. For the sixth time.

and we're continuing to kill their terrorist allies in a war that has, er, "nothing to do with the War on Terror"...

Errrrr... where do you read anything like that, anywhere? Answer whenever you take a breath, in between calling others "delusional."

Anonymous said...

Cringely has been caught lying in the past ... like claiming he had Ph. D. from Stanford.

And Cringely isn't his real name either.