Cookie Update

[laroe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ross M. LaRoe)]

>Date: Tues, 29 Mar 94 09:06:17
>From:  bartlett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Fw: Preston McAfee
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>From: bartlett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Robin L. Bartlett)
>Subject: Fw: Preston McAfee
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>>Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 17:02:58
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>>Subject: Fw: Preston McAfee
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>>Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 16:42:14 -0500
>>From: Jim Andreoni <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>Subject: Fw: Preston McAfee
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>>
>>
>>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>>For your amusement, the wit of Preston McAfee:
>>
>>_______________________
>>
>>THE COOKIE CAPER
>>
>>by R. Preston McAfee
>>
>>Acting on information provided by alert recipient Michael
>>Williams, this reporter phoned Neiman-Marcus in Dallas, which
>>claims to have never sold a cookie recipe, much less sold a recipe
>>for
>>$250.00.
>>
>>The tale is as sleazy as expert testimony.  Dobscha's story is as
>>accurate as Arthur Laffer's vita.  The story of how this fraud was
>>brought to light, by a reporter as unbiased as a Tobacco Institute
>>study and as serious as the Western Economic Association, is a
>>fascinating drama, signifying as much as an advertisement for a new
>>edition of a principles text.
>>
>>Williams, hoping to get to try a $250 cookie, brought the recipe home
>>to his wife, Sheila.  Sheila said that the $250 Neiman-Marcus cookie
>>recipe is an urban myth, like the alligators in the New York sewers,
>>cats dried in the microwave, and good microeconomics papers in the
>>JPE.
>>
>>Williams, knowing that my interest in empirical research is as
>>profound as an Economics Letters paper, promptly phoned me.  I called
>>information and received the number of the downtown Dallas
>>Neiman-Marcus store, which is (214) 741-6911.  I called N-M.  This is
>>what I heard [I'm not making this up]:
>>
>>        This is Francie.  I'll be out of the office until March 28,
>>so please
>>        leave a message on my voice mail.  Thank you.
>>
>>Francie spoke in a drawl as thick as an experimental economist's
>>manuscript, but much more comprehensible.
>>
>>I contacted Southwestern Bell's Dallas operator, who verified that
>>I had the main number for the downtown Neiman-Marcus.  I called
>>again,
>>to insure that I hadn't misdialed, and got Francie again.  I didn't
>>leave a message.  The number was as phony as a trade theory proof.
>>
>>I again called Southwestern Bell, and established that N-M has a
>>store in a Dallas suburb named Prestonwood.  This sounded as
>>promising as a REStud revise and resubmit, but I called them anyway.
>>
>>Surprisingly, the phone was answered by an operator saying
>>"Neiman-Marcus,"  in a voice so husky, it could have pulled a
>>dogsled.
>>I could tell my luck had turned.  I explained the situation.  "I've
>>heard about that," the operator barked, "but I don't think we sell
>>recipes.  Let me transfer you to Epicure." She put me on hold for a
>>while.  Godot arrived, got bored, and left again.  The Roman Empire
>>was
>>built, then fell.  I received a response from the QJE.
>>
>>The name Epicure was as obscure to me as a Prescott seminar.  But I
>>spoke
>>with a pleasant woman, one Amy Lerks, who assured me that
>>Neiman-Marcus was as likely to sell cookie recipes as J Math Ec is to
>>publish intuitive ideas. "We do sell cookbooks, is that what you're
>>after?" she inquired.  I asked what the most expensive cookbook they
>>sell costs.  "About $45," she informed me, "but it's of coffee-table
>>quality."
>>
>>I had no idea they made cookbooks that large.  At $45, it's a steal,
>>but
>>kind of unwieldy in the kitchen.
>>
>>Amy promised to check with the suppliers to find out if N-M has ever
>>sold recipes, and to call me Wednesday.
>>
>>Meanwhile, I re-examined the original email.  The originator of the
>>story, a Susan Dobscha, had no identified address.  However, it
>>appeared that her message came from Bucknell University, which
>>turns out to be in Lewisburg, PA, area code 717.  A call to the phone
>>company revealed that no Susan Dobscha lives within a Burke
>>neighborhood of Lewisburg.
>>
>>[editor's note: a Burke neighborhood is named after a now infamous
>>incident in which UT Professor Jon Burke was invited to a conference
>>in Spain.  He combined the trip with a vacation for his family, so
>>arrived in Spain with his wife and three children, only to find out
>>he
>>had arrived on the correct day one year early.  Ever since, a Burke
>>neighborhood has represented an area larger than Sandy Grossman's
>>ego.]
>>
>>I sent Susan Dobscha an email, asking her to fax a copy of her credit
>>card receipt, and insinuating that I was Mike Wallace from 60
>>minutes.  I was as convincing as a psychological explanation.
>>
>>Meanwhile, I logged into the Michigan gopher, hoping to track down
>>the email address vtvm1.cc.vt.edu, where Susan Dobscha allegedly
>>resided.  The gopher system is as simple as an IER paper.  After
>>several
>>hours, I decided the gopher was as useful as an existence theorem.
>>
>>Meanwhile, emails to a colleague and to Hal Varian, the person who
>>sent me the Dobscha recipe, produced the result that vt was Virginia
>>Tech.  This makes as much sense as the statistics in a medical study.
>>Since the name of the university is Virginia Polytechnical
>>Institute and State University and Exceedingly Boring Place to
>>Reside, one might have hoped for a more sensible appellation like
>>VPI, but that's like expecting lawyers to write in english.
>>
>>It turns out that email addresses are available from the gopher for
>>VPI, so I asked for a listing on Dobscha.  The list came up as empty
>>as a
>>MBA's head.
>>
>>Feeling that I'd accomplished as much as a federal bureaucrat, I
>>called it a night.
>>
>>I woke up as optimistic as an entering graduate student.  The phone
>>company had numbers for a Susan M. Dobscha in Blacksburg and for the
>>economics department at VPI.  My call to the econ department was as
>>useful as a referee's report: no Susan Dobscha was in the department.
>>
>>However, a Susan Dobscha is a graduate student the marketing
>>department.  Hmm.  As they say at Caltech, the Plott thickens.  I
>>left a
>>message.
>>
>>Soon after, I received an email from Dobscha.  "I was not the
>>originator of the by a long shot" this missive asserted, as free of
>>errors as a JET galley, "and since I mailed it out have found out
>>that
>>this scenario is exactly as you said - contemporary urban legend.
>>So,
>>no need to worry - I wasn't duped."
>>
>>Dobscha may not have been duped, but what about the millions of
>>internet users, baking away?  Displaying all the morals of an
>>attorney, Dobscha felt no obligation to correct the error she
>>propagated, which shows that a marketing education has some effect.
>>She has a promising future as a spokeswoman for Philip Morris.
>>
>>So the recipe, alas, joins the ranks of the spider eggs in BubbleYum,
>>the worms in McDonald's hamburgers, and the Journal of Economic
>>Perspectives as one of the greatest frauds perpetrated on an
>>unsuspecting audience.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>----- End Included Message -----
>>
>>------------------------------------------
>>James Andreoni, Department of Economics
>>University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin 53706
>>Ph: 608-263-3864  Fax: 608-263-3876
>>
>Robin L. Bartlett
>Denison University
>Granville, Ohio 43023
>Bartlett@xxxxxxxxxxx
>Fax 614-587-6417
>
>