Date:         Sun, 26 Mar 2000 00:03:23 -0500
Reply-To:     itaylor@MEDIAONE.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Isaac Taylor <itaylor@MEDIAONE.NET>
Subject:      Alrighty Folks: here's a shot in the dark!

So, I'm a senior at Harvard looking to beg, borrow, or steal a Westy for a few weeks this
summer and drive across the country with a ladyfriend.  (I'll be the first to admit it's a lousy
pick-up line... but if you keep reading I assure you: you've not heard this one before.)  I've
been looking to buy a decent late 80's bus for a couple of months now, but (my lord!) they
are expensive, and what with student loan repayment looming like an iceberg on my horizon...
I come to my pipe dream:

Is there one of you who wants to loan, rent, or sell me your cherished four-wheeled friend for
a few weeks?  I can't offer much in the way of money up front, but I belive I may have more
persuasive currency to offer.

Plan A)
I can make your bus famous! Lights, Camera, Action... well, almost!

I worked for NPR's Car Talk show last year.  I was an official lackey at CarTalk Plaza here
in our fair city... screening callers and building web-content.  Ok, actually I really spent all my
time gophering coffee, but regardless I reckon I could pull some strings and get your bus
some international multimedia celebrity by doing weekly segments, uplinked from the road
(i.e., this weeks' adventures in the life of LackeyX et al, live from scenic Gary, Indiana) and
publishing daily content to the web from a cellular/satellite modem.  Hell, I've got a sponsor
that'll donate a remote-control mobile streaming webcam (check out the official Dewey,
Cheetham, & Howe webcam at www.cartalk.com - you can actually control the thing
yourself over the web).  Now of course this is all hypothetical at this point, and I'm not going
to pitch the guys (my old bosses) without I actually have a ride lined up... but if you'd like to
discuss this further please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

(If you're wondering why, if I've got it all figured out and have strings to pull, I don't just get
the corporate Car Talk entity to procure a new Eurovan for me and skip all this nonsense...
well: actually that's not a bad idea, but I rather suspect that VWoA would be reluctant to loan
a punk like me anything that so much as rolled downhill if they knew I was intending to
broadcast my pop-top adventures live on the web!  That, and it's just not the cowboy way.)

Plan B)
Stock-options.  I'm broke right now; like most college students I subsist on beer and Ramen.
But unlike most college students, I've been working full-time for the last three years, and have
recently acquired a significant equity stake in a well-funded internet startup here in the Boston
area (and yes, we're going public. In October.)  I would be willing to trade a chunk of my
equity for the use of a bus for the summer;  I'd have to talk to a lawyer as I'm not sure how a
contract like this would be drawn up, but assuming it's all legal and kosher and mutually
agreed-upon... I would even be willing to discuss buying the right Westy outright, for a larger
stake in my stake in my company.

So, again, if you're comfortable with non-traditional business relationships, and are interested
in discussing this further, please don't hesitate to get in touch.  For that matter, get in touch
even if you're just a fellow VW enthusiast who lives here in Beantown and you'd like to get
together for lunch at some point this Spring.

Lastly, apologies to those inevitable listmembers who find themselves (for whatever reason)
irked by this sort of unsolicited claptrap; no offense intended, and yes: I well-appreciate the
evils of spam... I trust you understand the difficulty inherent in reconciling my overwhelming
urge to find a pop-top -- and soon -- with my otherwise inscrutable netiquette.

Regards, Isaac in Cambridge, Mass.


In chronological order:
'73 Squareback
'81 Jetta
'84 Rabbit Diesel
'87 Quantum GL-5 Syncro Wagon
'97 Golf