Gross? Yes. Dan Gross.

June 9, 2006 2:42 PM

Daniel Gross,economics columnist for Slate, wrote on April 7 : "...if (Bush appoints) an A-list Wall Street CEO (for Treasury Secretary), I'll buy a copy of Dow 36,000 and eat the first chapter." Bush appointed Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson on May 30. Today, Gross makes good on the promise.
posted by suckerpunch (14 comments total)

i love that he hopes this stunt would not get noticed. MWA HA HA!
posted by cdcello at 2:47 PM on June 9, 2006

Forgot to mention : Windows only.

For the record, the video's not that amusing, and you never actually see him take a bite of the salad. It's entirely possible that it's faked (and badly, at that). Which only makes it more intruiging.
posted by suckerpunch at 2:47 PM on June 9, 2006

That was my first thought. Where's the money shot?
posted by Khalad at 2:50 PM on June 9, 2006

That is pretty funny.
posted by caddis at 2:58 PM on June 9, 2006

Forgot to mention : Windows only.

WMV doesn't mean windows only - there are a number of free downloads to enable playback of WMV on a non-windows box, including (for Mac users) the excellent Flip4Mac plugin...

sorry to derail. excellent post. i agree with suckerpunch and Khalad - clever editing kind of obscures the fact that we only ever see him put one strand of SOMETHING in his mouth. could be noodles, for as poorly as the video was lit.
posted by casconed at 3:07 PM on June 9, 2006

It's entirely possible that it's faked...

I call shenanigans on him actually consuming the whole chapter. And if I'm wrong, I'll burn this video file onto a soon to be released HD-DVD disc and swallow it whole with with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
posted by JPowers at 3:07 PM on June 9, 2006

I doubt he actually ate it too. I'm reminded that Werner Herzog only made a few nibbles when he said he'd eat his shoe.
posted by bobo123 at 3:28 PM on June 9, 2006

Werner Herzog eats his shoe.
posted by Tuwa at 3:36 PM on June 9, 2006

I've eaten paper before - there was clearly not enough volume in that salad to be a whole chapter, unless that chapter was 3 pages long. Anyone have a copy of Dow 36,000?
posted by muddgirl at 3:57 PM on June 9, 2006

Clicking on a Slate link is like jumping in the Wayback Machine set for the late 90's. Having said that, there's always a few good articles per week . . . but the wheels are falling off that design. It basically doesn't work with Firefox, especially their slideshows.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 4:04 PM on June 9, 2006

Well, the video works over here on ubuntu/firefox/mplayer plugin/essential codecs pack. I'm not getting any sound, though. Is it supposed to have any?
posted by Mitrovarr at 5:03 PM on June 9, 2006

That's Gross.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:12 PM on June 9, 2006

It'll work on Linux. Add Marillat to your /etc/apt/sources.list, then apt-get install w32codecs.
posted by QIbHom at 9:19 AM on June 10, 2006

Why even go through with a shenanigan like this if you're going to so obviously fake it?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:00 PM on June 12, 2006