The Greenbrier and "stimulus"
There is a strangely eerie ad - full page, full color - in today's NYT, by the Greenbrier resort in WV, touting how they are lush and plush and successful without any government stimulus money. The point of the ad, other than boosting the Greenbrier as a destination, is a bit murky... I for one wouldn't really think much about whether or not my vacation resort had been given "government stimulus money."
A good number of you are probably already scratching your heads, because you know that the Greenbrier... is the site of the original cold war defense bunker built to house congress in the event of a national emergency. In the 1950s, an absolutely gigantic underground complex was built just under the existing Greenbrier, with one large wing added to the hotel in part to provide access and cover for the bunker and in part as payment to the hotel for the accommodation. For forty years, the Greenbrier received payments and other special support (like extraordinary infrastructure support - power, water, communications, and priority road maintenance) that certainly helped them maintain a certain level of service and quality for their regular guests.
But no, they've never received "government stimulus money."
I can't believe anyone thought this ad was a smart idea. The bunker and its history has been non-secret since 1992 - for a time, you could go on tours of it. Certainly a very large portion of the East Coast upper-crusties who might be Greenbrier clients know of the history; it's hard to say how many might be amused by this brazen misrepresentation.
Funny, in any case.
