A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound

From the Movies Watched While WiiFit Exercising file: 1968 or so's Hot Millions, starring Peter Ustinov and Bob Newhart, and go ahead, try to think of another movie starring Bob Newhart. (Correct answers: Catch 22 and The First Family, neither of which you remember.) This is a caper movie, that curious genre where we're supposed to root for people who steal and defraud because they're played by the more charismatic actors, and it works since of course it's Peter Ustinov doing the defrauding.

( And now a spot of spoiler. I should mention computer-oriented folks are really going to like the way the scam is pulled off, particularly in some of its Glorious Old Days of minicomputers fun. )

Trivia: On 21 May 1941 at Ford's River Rouge plant 51,868 (69.9 percent) out of 78,000 ballots were cast for the CIO as official bargaining agent; 27.4 percent were for the AFL. 1,958 men (2.7 percent) voted for no union. Henry Ford had expected ``no union'' to win. Source: Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire, Ricahrd Bak.

Currently Reading: Shipwreck: The Strange Fate Of The Morro Castle, Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan Witts.