"It was like, 'F*** it, let's party, let's go to San Francisco,' " said an AOL official. "So we go to a strip bar, and you're like, 'F***, this is a family company, and we're expensing a strip show!' " Both men and women from AOL attended. .... If a few carousing AOL officials went to a strip bar, it was overlooked. But it didn't end there. On the night before Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa Bay in January 2001, when the Baltimore Ravens beat the New York Giants, cars were inching along in bumper-to-bumper traffic while pedestrians streamed by. Tossing caution to the wind, some AOL executives walked around the side of a building, barely veiled from the revelry, and proceeded to snort "coke on the hood of a car," said one who witnessed it. "You have to not give a s*** about anything." Alarming thoughts raced through this person's head, including an imaginary headline if they were spotted: Top AOL Execs Caught Doing Coke at Super Bowl. .... Most reckless behavior took place beyond the confines of Dulles, in a more evolved adult playground: Las Vegas. When company executives traveled to Sin City, they were sometimes greeted by a limo and a wealthy AOL business partner who put them up at the Mansion at the MGM Grand, the exclusive province of the high roller. Built on the side of the gigantic casino, the mansion is a Tuscan-inspired architectural spread hidden from the masses, composed of enormous suites, with fireplaces in most every room, ranging from three thousand to fourteen thousand square feet. The businessman, however, didn't limit his largess to grand suites. One of his close associates said he also "set them up on his own credit line" so that the AOL execs could gamble freely, to a point, without fear of losing their own shirts. The businessman had his own reasons for being so generous: "He wanted to build their loyalty to him," the associate said. If the credit line didn't work, he offered the AOLers another inducement: high-priced call girls. "I guess it was his way of doing business, of closing deals, of making them happy," said another colleague of the businessman. ..... http://www.nypost.com/business/2228.htm
Aphie, The New York Post, which admittedly has a great sports section, is about as reliable for news as the National Enquirer or the Globe or the Star, or any of the other "checkout line" publications. The story may be true. But it may not be. It's the Post. You never know! I know someone who works at the Globe. She told me they have meetings in which the "writers" compete with each other to see who can come up with the most outrageous headlines. After they get the headline decided on, then they write the story to go with it. Accuracy and truth are not a major consideration. The Post is really just a daily version of the same thing. Slightly more real, but not by much. Sports section makes it all worthwhile. (but you need to be a New Yorker to appreciate it...otherwise the USA Today gets the nod). Peace, RS