2-11-07 - "CUKE.COM FOR SALE?" scream the headlines! Not so quick there. Here's what happened.

I received the following email:

I am interested in acquiring the domain name: cuke.com . If you are interested in selling cuke.com , please reply to this email with your price. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

I replied thus:

How interesting. No, I've had this site for nine years or so and love the name. Of course, I guess everyone has their price.
Thanks, DC
 

Hmm. That "everyone has their price" part is just a saying. It's not true of course. It's just true sometimes, maybe a whole lot of the time, but not all the time. If you think in terms of just money then you wouldn't take anything for your kids... unless you're real poor... and real poor people do sometimes sell their kids - not only for their sake but for the kids. One fairly absolute exception I can think of is if someone asked you how much you'd charge to have your whole family including you ground into dog food. I guess there might be some strange person agree to that, but almost no one.

Aside from such ridiculous speculation, it would be a big hassle to have to change the domain name. www.cuke.com is printed on my books [see home page]  (Is it on the last printing of Thank You and OK? Hmm.) And it's all over the internet as links and such and lots of people go there and how would they learn the new domain name? There's no advertising. It doesn't make any money so a new address would just have to slowly catch on. See - it's not just a name, it's an address. It's not a phone number though.

And then I'd have to think of a new name, have a contest to give it a new name maybe. kyuri.com - that's cucumber in Japanese. hebo.com  - that's what Hoitsu, Shunryu's son, thought may have been used long ago as slang for "crooked." (just "hebo," not "hebo.com.") There'd be so much to think of and do. What a hassle it would be.

But then again, it would finally make money. How much would make it worthwhile? Bob Halpern told me it's the most extensive non commercial site he knows of. Would he say the same thing now that there are ads with links to the Cuke Basket, our Cafe Press page with tee shirts etc for sale? Have I already sold out, Bob? And then there are the pathetic fundraising attempts.

Sell out? Sell out. At first I'm offended, but then I like the sound of that. I could go back to Baja and sit on the beach - or at least buy a pair of jeans and some new walking shoes. What's my price?

I had a couple of guys try to get me to sign the film rights of Crooked Cucumber over to them. I told them that the thought horrified me and that I couldn't imagine it not being totally screwed up. They really leaned on me but I wouldn't budge. I also got some selfless, non-materialistic mileage out of it, a few Buddhistic slaps on the back praising me for being so sacrificing for the noble cause of not tainting the legacy of Shunryu Suzuki. A small detail that I may have omitted is that these guys wanted me to do this for no up-front money - just the promise of money later. Sure. Just about any writer is dying to sell options for their books. Hollywood buys tons more such options than they use. They expire in a year or two or three and then the book can be sold again. Mike Murphey told me he sold Golf in the Kingdom five times. But these guys offered me no money. Couldn't they have at least tried to tempt me? How about a million? Well, on second thought, how about having Jet Li play Suzuki.

I'm reminded of that stupid TV show I remember from the late 80s, from before I went to Japan (I think) wherein an unsuspecting passerby would be asked to do something preposterous and they'd say no, of course not, and then they'd hear an offer of money to do it which would escalate till we'd see them doing what they thought they'd never do. I just saw it a few times. The one I remember best was a guy with scissors standing outside a men's clothing store asking men who walked out if he could cut the zipper off their pants. He had some very good reason. I would have been afraid he was a psycho mutilator but he got several guys to let him do just that and while they were wearing the pants.

But I have strayed from the subject. You tell me - how much would justify selling cuke.com?

- DC <dchad3(at)sonic(dot)net>