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To: Frost Byte who wrote (45660)	3/14/1999 2:19:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Mrs. Clinton to answer questions online-about pets By Randall Mikkelsen WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - With interest in her political and personal life soaring, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will go online on Tuesday to answer questions -- about White House pets, her spokeswoman said on Sunday. Mrs. Clinton was scheduled to appear in a live "chat" session on America Online <AOL.N> on Tuesday at 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT Wednesday), answering questions about her recent book, "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets," said spokeswoman Marsha Berry. "The topic is the book," Berry said, ruling out any questions that have lately consumed Hillary-watchers, such as whether she will run for the U.S. Senate in New York, or the state of her marriage in the wake of President Bill Clinton's sex-and-perjury impeachment scandal. The book, published late last year, features photographs of White House pets Buddy the dog and Socks the cat, copies of children's letters to the pets and text by Mrs. Clinton. The book could use a little plugging from its author -- sales have lagged behind her previous, hugely successful book, "It Takes a Village." Internet bookseller Amazon.com <AMZN.O> ranks the Socks and Buddy book 9,574 on its list of current best-sellers, compared with the newly released memoirs "All Too Human" of former White House aide George Stephanopoulos, which headed the list, and Andrew Morton's book on Clinton paramour Monica Lewinsky, "Monica's Story," which ranked seventh. But Berry said the White House pets were a favorite topic among children. "Whenever she goes to a school or something, it's always the question (topic) that brings kids out of their shyness," Berry said. She said the book's publisher, Simon and Schuster, had been collecting questions submitted to AOL and would present selections to Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday. The questions will be answered live through a moderator at the online service. AOL has about 16 million subscribers. The Clintons have given few clues to Mrs. Clinton's political plans -- other than to say she is carefully considering a Senate run -- or the state of their relationship. Mrs. Clinton's decision to cancel plans to travel with her husband to Central America last week and her absence from a weekend trip to dedicate the president's boyhood home in Arkansas fueled speculation the two were keeping their distance from each other. But the president late on Saturday suggested otherwise. Asked if Mrs. Clinton, who aides said stayed home to nurse a sore back, had wanted to go to Arkansas with him, Clinton told reporters while returning to Washington on Air Force One, "Oh yeah, bad. She wanted to go to Central America. She wanted to go to this."

To: Frost Byte who wrote (45660)	3/15/1999 12:48:00 PM
From: Rob S.	Respond to of 164684

Yes. I don't know precisely when they added it but it is new. This is likely to grow into more of a "ecommerce portal". There are lots of things they could do with this - for instance Amazon could develop (or modify a bought-in product) to offer "best of class" on-line web store development similar to Yahoo! and Merchandizer.com. They must greatly broaden their sales base over the next 1-2 years while the window of opportunity for sales and brand expansion is still open. Bezo made a particularly astute comment recently - I think it summarizes their business philosophy. It was something like "When you are first establishing a brand name it is like clay that can be molded into any shape you want but as time goes by it hardens and is very difficult to change." I like Bezo's business mind - even if it appears to be a runnaway debt engine at the moment. Bezos though a lot about what to call the business and decided on Amazon because of what that name implies; the largest river system in the world and a name that is both exotic and mysterious a fitting analogy for the web itself at this early stage.