Don't Tread on Me

When millionaire real estate guru Russ Whitney sicced his lawyers on a local critic named John Reed, he had no idea what he was getting into.

It's a long article, but a good one, specially for anyone who's ever considered one of the TV pitched real estate seminars.

John Reed, living in the East Bay here, writes and sells manuals on real estate but he doesn't charge an arm and a leg for it. The story said he ships about 15,000 self-published books a year, selling for $30 to $40. That would be a yearly gross of around $500K a year. Not bad but way shy of the $200 mil gross of this character Russ Whitney, who Reed had reason to suspect was sellilng snake oil.

I had pictures of these two guys in my very, very crucial thread about physiognomy. Here's Reed, the critic:



And here's Whitney, the seminar guru:



Whitney thought he could scare Reed off with the threat of having multiple lawyers descend on him. Reed made him rue the day he thought of it.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Heh...

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

That part caught my eye too. Amazing that it would work that well. I would have thought he'd have gotten a lot of "How did you get my number!?!" responses.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

30 some years ago standards were different. A woman may have felt flattered by a man who made the "effort" to find out personal details about her in advance of approaching her.
I remember when I was a teen, it always worked very well, if I had to show knowledge about the girl I was upto. It made them feel 'special'.

Nowadays, a response would be more like "Pardon me, do I know you?"
Old skool just doesn't work anymore.

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Nowadays you just stalk them on the internet.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman