Word: shaw
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...sweet it was--the genteel culture of this century's first decade. There were noises off, of course: the clatter of Ashcans in New York City's ateliers, for example. But--saints be praised!--New York's police commissioner had closed Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession after one performance because it was "revolting, indecent and nauseating when it was not boring." As late as 1912, a magazine editor (quoted in Ann Douglas' Terrible Honesty) could write that "no-one paints life as it is--thank Heaven--for we could not bear it," and receive few arguments from his readers...
Actually, it was one of Shaw's partners who interviewed Bezos first and urged the boss to meet him, saying, "He's going to make someone a lot of money someday." Shaw agreed, understanding that Bezos was unusual not only for his balanced intellect--he could handle complex logic as well as articulate his thinking--but also for the overall package: smart, creative, personable, precisely the kind of person they wanted. Over time, Bezos became a specialist in researching business opportunities in insurance, software and then the booming Internet...
Bezos realized he desperately wanted to start his own online bookstore. First he talked it over with MacKenzie. She too had graduated from Princeton, but six years after him; they met at Shaw, where she worked as a researcher. An English-literature major at the university, she had been novelist Toni Morrison's assistant and now had begun a novel of her own. MacKenzie was all for the adventure...
Next Bezos went to Shaw, who said he was sorry to lose such a talented executive but fully understood Bezos' desire to strike out on his own. He cautioned him to make sure, however, that this was what he truly wanted to do. Bezos decided to spend the next two days recalculating the risks...
...June 1995 a rudimentary website had been created on a hidden site www.amazon.com:99 now defunct), and 300 friends and family members were sworn to secrecy and invited to crash-test it. "The first time I saw the site, I said to myself, 'Wow, this is it,'" recalls Shaw. It was simple, functional and wonderful. Kaphan's code was incredibly elegant and streamlined, allowing pages to be delivered without delay...