On tonight's episode of "Undercover Boss" on
CBS, president and CEO Andy Wirth gets a makeover and goes undercover to
Lake Tahoe, Calif. The Squaw Valley mountain is famous for hosting the
1960 Winter Olympics and the epicenter of big mountain skiing. Alpine
Meadows offers a family-friendly atmosphere with excellent snow sports
for the entire family. The founder of the empire was Conrad Wirth,
Andy's grandfather, who was the Director of the National Parks Services
for eleven years. When Andy took over, he purchased Alpine Meadows to
give the two resorts a more family-friendly atmosphere, where Squaw
Valley mainly catered to the expert skiers.
However, while
Ford certainly saw the potential for soaring profits by basically
eliminating their payroll costs in Mexico where the daily minimum wage
is about $4.50 a day, they did not count on their business plan becoming
another casualty in Mexico's raging drug war.
To give
you an idea of the depth of the collection, on display is a 1926
Rolls-Royce. Wilbert Grinsven, the curator tells me that there were only
two years that Rolls-Royce manufactured cars in the United States. Those
years were 1926 and 1927. This car is one of the few Rolls Royce's made
here during that time. The auto manufacturer decided that it was not
economically feasible to continue manufacturing autos in the US and
closed its factory here in the states after only 2 years. Another
example of a beautiful old car is a car used in the movie "Driving Miss
Daisy". http://www.prhwy.com/news/88387-used-cars-by-chevy-toyota-ford-more-at-mccluskey-automotive-your-cincinnati-ohio-used-car-dealer.html&rct=j&q=&esrc=s
Of course, a little known fact about comedian Jay Leno is
that he has made NBC nearly one billion dollars richer since he took
over Johnny Carson's chair. But, yes, you do have to shell
out some cash to be part of this whole event. There are several packages
available. One would be the dinner and dance package which would cost
you $60. With this one, you get to join those others with the same
package have dinner at 7:30 p.m. at the museum's Willennar Hall. You
would be able to enjoy dancing, dinner, the cash bar, and a champagne
toast come midnight.
But there
is certainly good news for those who just have no idea where to
celebrate the holidays. You see, the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum is
actually inviting everybody for a big event. The event is to actually
celebrate the arrival of the new year, 2007. Come the last day of this
year, 31st of December, there would be a celebration and an event which
the museum dubbed as "A Classic New Year's Eve". No, the museum is not
going to give away some of their cars or even some of the Custom
buy truck contract parts at the very least. It is perhaps a way
of saying thank you to all those auto lovers and to all of the public
who has wholeheartedly supported the auto museum through the year. Well,
since that was the only plan the three of us were able to come up with
that whole evening, I figured it was destiny. There really wasn't
anything else going on in my life so as dawn arrived we headed for the
Army recruiting office. There were, of course, some tests for me to
take. When I came back it was just out of the guilt that I had.
I pride myself on my professionalism, and this is the first issue I've
ever had where I wasn't able to come to set ... The thing that cut deep
to the core of me was knowing that there were 65 human beings who are like family to me, waiting for me to come back. They were
sitting on their asses doing nothing because of my...you know, my
situation. It's hard to do anything. It's hard to button your pants or brush
your teeth, let alone jump off a three-story building into a pad. This
movie was the most physical thing I've ever had to do, and I had to do
it with a broken hand. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my
life. Constantly having to take hits and fall and run through explosions
and get hit and beat up all day. Aside from my hand, I also got 25
stitches making this movie, in various parts of my body -- stuff that
had nothing to do with my hand.