One Friday morning I was looking at the Wall Street Journal, and it said the management of a company called Lane Bryant was going to buy the company. And I thought, “Jeez, this is kind of interesting. If it’s a public company and the people that are running the company are going to buy the company…” And the article went on to say that the company had tried to sell itself and there weren’t any buyers so the management of the company decided they were going to buy it. Well, if that’s a good deal for them, it might be a good deal for us. Got some public information, called the president of the company and said, “We want to bid,” and he said, “I’m running the company and I’m a bidder…” So you know, “Fry ice.” We called their lawyer, who’s mentioned in the paper — the company lawyer. I said, “We’re real bidders.” And went to New York on a Friday afternoon, got a little bit of information about how many stores and how much business they had done, no financials. Met with Manufacturers Hanover Trust on a Saturday morning and arranged for a loan, bid on the company, and Monday night we owned it.
So I get home around three in the morning from New York and the net worth of our business was about $120 million. We borrowed $150 million from Manufacturers Hanover to buy Lane Bryant. The story was I get home, you know. I’m back at my house in Columbus. I go in the refrigerator. It’s three in the morning. Pour myself a big glass of white wine, and I remember looking in the window and seeing my reflection and sipping the wine and saying, “You just bet the ranch.” Six months later we paid off all the debt.