[PW] ? Quotations from Bowdoin Alumni (Quotation Query #650)

[John Henderson]

 From the 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl on December 3, 2006  
(courtesy of Lexis Nexis), is an expansion on the mostly  
unremarkable, unoriginal line perhaps most associated with Reed  
Hastings, "I wonder why no one's done that before":

STAHL: What--how did it come about?

Mr. REED HASTINGS: And I was hoping you wouldn't ask that, because  
it's a little embarrassing. I'd rented a VHS and I had misplaced it  
and it was six weeks late, so it was a $40 late fee. And I remember  
it because I didn't want to tell my wife, because, you know, I knew  
what she would say. And...

STAHL: What would she say, what would she say?

Mr. HASTINGS: Oh, an eye roll.

STAHL: An eye roll.

Mr. HASTINGS: An eye roll that could kill. And I thought, `Oh, great,  
now I'm thinking about lying to my wife about a late fee and the  
sanctity of my marriage for this thing,' I mean, it just was crazy.  
And I was on the way to the gym and I realized, `Wow, video stores  
could operate like a gym with a flat membership fee.' And it was  
like, `Hm, I wonder why no one's done that before?'

On Apr 20, 2008, at 8:37 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
Reed Hastings