Word: auctions
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Kids, beware of enterprising teachers. You never know when they may put your homework up for auction. Robert Hunter, the high school art teacher of deceased Nirvana singer and enduring cult figure KURT COBAIN, recently consigned some of the musician's work to Christie's auction house for an upcoming sale. Among the items, a signed pencil and watercolor depiction of Michael Jackson and a graphite on paper rendering of then-President Ronald Reagan, below. The latter earned high marks from Hunter ("Kurt, your caricatures are outstanding. 10/10, A"). Christie's appraisers, apparently, favored the Jackson, assigning...
There are tricks of the trade too. Savvy bidders know how to swoop in to bag their quarry during the last few seconds of an auction (which can last hours, days or weeks). And certain merchants collude to drive up prices artificially. For the most part, overpaying at these electronic garage sales is the consequence of being too enthusiastic--just as it is with the old-fashioned kind. Caught up in the competitive frenzy of an auction, many people don't know when to fold their cards. Says Tim Brady, vice president of production at Yahoo: "Anybody...
...last week, I couldn't help recalling the late R. Hugh ("Pat") Uhlmann, a Dartmouth man of antic temperament, who used to tout a daring idea for taking the pressure off any college that is regularly forced to turn away the progeny of many prosperous and influential citizens: Auction off the last 10 places in the class...
...insisted, though, that his auction plan made perfect sense. No admissions office, after all, claims a precise scientific justification for choosing the applicants just above the cutoff line over those below it. If 10 places were sold to the highest bidders, the incoming class would be virtually indistinguishable from a non-auction class, 10 sets of parents (some of them, presumably, loyal alumni) would be grateful to the college rather than deeply offended, and the college would have a bundle of cash that it could use to provide scholarships for worthy applicants who'd got in under their own steam...
...with that sort of talent on the cello, not to speak of the courage and presence of mind to save six nuns from drowning during a hurricane--makes a strong candidate, but before you go away disappointed about your son, let me tell you about this little auction option we happen to have...