{"id":27033,"date":"2007-05-01T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-05-01T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/2007\/05\/01\/two-web-sites-that-read-the-fine-print\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T18:08:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T02:08:36","slug":"20070501-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20070501-01\/?p=27033","title":{"rendered":"Two web sites that read the fine print"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On <a href=\"http:\/\/footnoted.org\/\">footnoted.org<\/a>, Michelle Leder reads the fine print in all those SEC filings, focusing on the details that companies try to hide from vigilant eyes. For example, she dug into Carnival Corp&#8217;s proxy statement and discovered &#8220;that Chairman and CEO Micky Arison rang up $343K on his use of the corporate jet last year and that COO Howard Frank spent $321K,&#8221; up from $215K and $101K last year, respectively. My favorite example of corporate jet-setting is <a href=\"http:\/\/footnoted.org\/a-day-at-the-beach\/\"> this one on Applebee&#8217;s former CEO Lloyd Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"q\"><p>On 29 occasions from April 2006 through January 2007, Applebees&#8217;s corporate aircraft flew into and out of Galveston, Texas, where former CEO Lloyd Hill happens to own a beach house. The nearest Applebees&#8217;s restaurant is more than 40 miles away. Though Mr. Hill ceased to be CEO in September 2006, company planes continue the Galveston shuttle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/footnoted.org\/and-the-oscar-goes-to\/\"> The current record-holder for personal use of the corporate jet<\/a> is George David, Chairman and CEO of United Technologies (UTX), who spent over $600,000 of his company&#8217;s money on personal flights. (And check out that $194,099 under &#8220;Cash Flexible Perquisite Allowances&#8221;! Isn&#8217;t &#8220;cash perquisite&#8221; an oxymoron?) Another web site that reads the fine print is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mouseprint.org\/\"> mouseprint*<\/a>, which looks at the fine print in consumer products. It could be simple things like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mouseprint.org\/?p=136\"> a gallon can of paint that is less than a gallon<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mouseprint.org\/?p=122\"> a quart of mayonnaise that is less than a quart<\/a>. Or it could be pointing out that Scott&#8217;s 1000-sheet toilet paper, billed as having &#8220;improved long-lasting value,&#8221; is actually <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mouseprint.org\/?p=114\"> 7.5% shorter than the old roll<\/a>. Mouseprint* also found lacking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mouseprint.org\/?p=111\"> the defense of Gorilla Glue against charges of making the unsubstantiated claim that they make &#8220;the toughest glue on planet earth<\/a>.&#8221; The defense? The claim is &#8220;so broad in scope, so general in nature, and so exaggerated in content, that no reasonable consumer would believe it to be a superiority claim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In other words, &#8220;You&#8217;d have to be an idiot to believe us!&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Footnoted and mouseprint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,137],"class_list":["post-27033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-non-computer","tag-reading-the-fine-print"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>Footnoted and mouseprint.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}