What are you reading?

[dragon8]

Just read Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel m. Katz's "Harpoon Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters"

I'm always amazed how people can smuggle money in suitcases through airports.

 

[edinatlanta]

Just read Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel m. Katz's "Harpoon Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters"

I'm always amazed how people can smuggle money in suitcases through airports.

Long story but i have carried several thousand in cash through airports. The difficulty is when the bag is in the overhead bin

 

[dragon8]

Long story but i have carried several thousand in cash through airports. The difficulty is when the bag is in the overhead bin

These guys were moving like $70k cash and some of them could make what they call "superbills" and the US didn't care since they were not producing enough.

 

[edinatlanta]

These guys were moving like $70k cash and some of them could make what they call "superbills" and the US didn't care since they were not producing enough.

Yeah i was carrying like 5k.

 

[dragon8]

Yeah i was carrying like 5k.

Have you ever gotten it stolen before or questioned at customs?

 

[dragon8]

Just finished an enjoyable read called "Lost Department Stores ofd San Francisco" by Anne Evers Hitz. Had as many pictures as pages.

I remember the Emporium store and I Magnin. Emporium, as a kid, at Christmas, my mom took us to the roof for the rides and then we would go to Woolworth for a snack.

I miss Emporium.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I'm always amazed how people can smuggle money in suitcases through airports.

I had a half Chinese friend when I was younger, who I totally wished was my girlfriend, and about a year after Tiananmen, she came to visit me in the USA. She had two suitcases, one of which turned out to be... full of money. It was all to help activists escaping from China (we'd been on protests together in Europe and I knew she was involved). She strolled through the inspections like the coolest person in the world. I was so in awe of her...

 

[dragon8]

I had a half Chinese friend when I was younger, who I totally wished was my girlfriend, and about a year after Tiananmen, she came to visit me in the USA. She had two suitcases, one of which turned out to be... full of money. It was all to help activists escaping from China (we'd been on protests together in Europe and I knew she was involved). She strolled through the inspections like the coolest person in the world. I was so in awe of her...

I thought they had dogs to sniff these things out and all. And don't they scan all suitcases?

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I thought they had dogs to sniff these things out and all. And don't they scan all suitcases?

This was 1990... I'm not sure security was up to much in those days. They were still asking whether you were carrying any communist literature...

 

[edinatlanta]

Have you ever gotten it stolen before or questioned at customs?

Nope. I've also well exceeded the limit of Cuban cigars for personal importation and just said nothing to declare. TBH even though you can smuggle a lot through a carry-on bag considering the sheer volume of passenger traffic and that there's a pretty finite ceiling, I don't think any governments are interested in stopping empires being built or continued one carry on at a time.

 

[imatlas]

Just finished an enjoyable read called "Lost Department Stores ofd San Francisco" by Anne Evers Hitz. Had as many pictures as pages.

I remember the Emporium store and I Magnin. Emporium, as a kid, at Christmas, my mom took us to the roof for the rides and then we would go to Woolworth for a snack.

I miss Emporium.

I worked in I. Magnin’s credit card department, briefly, just before it was acquired by Macy’s. Our office was in the China Basin building, when that was on the edge of nowhere.

Celebrity billing statements were our prime entertainment: Danielle Steele regularly dropped $50,000 at a time.

 

[dragon8]

I worked in I. Magnin’s credit card department, briefly, just before it was acquired by Macy’s. Our office was in the China Basin building, when that was on the edge of nowhere.

Celebrity billing statements were our prime entertainment: Danielle Steele regularly dropped $50,000 at a time.

Only $50k a month?

 

[imatlas]

Hey that was just one store. I imagine the day's haul would be double or triple that (and inflation has halved the buying power of the dollar since 1990)

A while ago she caught flack for having something like 25 street parking permits.

 

[dragon8]

Hey that was just one store. I imagine the day's haul would be double or triple that (and inflation has halved the buying power of the dollar since 1990)

A while ago she caught flack for having something like 25 street parking permits.

I remember that. Its funny that with a house in the tens of millions that it lacks a adequate parking and why does she need that many cars?!

 

[Adsky Luck]

Am currently laboring through American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis on the second attempt to beat it.
It's not a well-written book and in places very boring, not to mention controversial, however it does appear on some lists of "100 books you should read b4 you die".
Having said that, the protagonist is into male attire, drops brand names, some of which are still staples here, and in places it reads like it could have been written by one of the regulars in WAYWRN on classic menswear )
For example...