Really from James Williams

[Per Starback]

[Here is a message that James accidentally sent to me instead of the list:]
......................................................................
>Makes me wonder why Gladstone doesn't cancel WDC&S and print Mickey
>and Donald twelve times a year.

As much as I dislike WDC&S containing just Mickey and Donald, it 
is still so much better than M&D.  I cringe everytime I think about
the Jamie Diaz studio.  I am beginning to wonder if Gladstone has the
license for Bucky Bug, L'il Bag Wolf, and such.  I really wish Gary
Leach was still on this list, because he would have been able
to answer our questions.

>And while I'm at it, does Scrooge live in a mansion, or in his
>moneybin? Given his paranoia, I'd guess the moneybin.

We've seen Scrooge in bed on ocassions - usually having nightmares.
But I cannot every recall seeing his home.  Which leads me to believe
that he doesn't have one.  Then again, we've never seen anything
resembling living quarters in the moneybin either.  Don, you are
our resident Uncle Scrooge expert - Where does Scrooge sleep at night.

>Does Scrooge collect fine art?

It is a plot device.  Ocassionaly, you will see Donald and the boys in
some far off land looking for some lost statue.  In each case, the item
is something which can be acquired for free (30 cents an hour isn't
really free, but it is close enough).  I don't think Scrooge would ever
pay for any artwork unless there was a profit to be made.

>Yes, Scrooge loves his money.  But he also loves making money, he is
>willing to spend money to make money, and I have never noticed any
>disdain on his part for any honest means of making money.  That's why
>I think that additional reasons are needed to explain the phenomenon of
>the money bin; I can't see Scrooge mindlessly hoarding all of his money
>if that's a tremendously costly activity.

I've no problem with Scrooge spending money to make money or loaning 
money to people.  We see it all the time.  But, the money used in those 
transactions is money earned by Scrooge McDuck's companies, not by 
Scrooge McDuck himself.  The money which he earned by himself is stored 
in the moneybin.  There is one place where I disagree with the standard 
moneybin explinations and that I don't believe that the moneybin 
contains all of the money which Scrooge earned by himself.  It is 
impossible, when he was a pauper he had to spend his own money because 
he didn't have any other possible source of income.

>It's probably true that Barks used made-up terms to avoid pinning down
>the amount of the fortune, as well as because of their implication of
>immensity.  Guessing at the amount of Scrooge's fortune is a harmless
>pursuit, if only because no two estimates have ever been close. 
>However, I do think some of the other points that have come up in this
>thread have been worthwhile.

Agreed.  I think this has been a wonderful thread.  There are three
moneybin related questions that I've often wondered about:

1.  How was the moneybin built and what was it made of?  With the
    weight of all that money, the moneybin should either sink into
    the ground (don't laught, the Washington Monument sinks a few
    inches each year) or the sides should burst from all the strain.

2.  In the untitled 10-pager which introduces the moneybin (is it one
    word or two?), Scrooge says that it cost him half of his fortune to
    build the moneybin.  If that is the case, how can he afford to keep
    rebuilding it each time it is destroyed?  In fact it is destoryed
    in that same story.

3.  My all time favorite Uncle Scrooge story is "A Financial Fable".
    In this story Scrooge has another moneybin in farm country.  Why?
    This isn't the only time we've seen Scrooge with non-standard
    moneybins.

James Williams