Scott Hollifield: New plan -- a dinosaur and our future

I've got a new plan.
And if this were a movie, and you were in the movie and I explained my new plan, you would say, "That's just crazy enough to work."
Of course, this isn't a movie and the plan will never work, but that won't stop me from explaining it to you. It involves a small, hard-scrabble Southern town struggling in these tough economic times, a multi-billionaire with a heart of gold and the vision to see that some plans are just crazy enough to work, a young boy with a dream and, most importantly, a dinosaur that no one wanted, at least not for the $6 million asking price.
It begins in Vegas, as most plans do, at a dinosaur auction.
On Oct. 3, according to an Associated Press story, Samson, the third most complete T. rex skeleton ever discovered, failed to fetch a bid of at least $6 million as its owner had hoped. The highest bid for Samson, who is described as having "the finest skull" ever found, came in at $3.7 million from a hotel-casino in Venice, where they obviously don't appreciate the value of a fine skull.
So, the search for a new home for Samson continues.
If you think my plan is to put together a highly skilled ring of international criminals - a computer expert, a demolition specialist, a master of disguise and a beautiful, tall, multi-ethnic woman in spandex who speaks six languages - to subvert the high-tech security system in the closely guarded warehouse and steal the dinosaur, you would be wrong. Not totally wrong, because that is Plan B.
Plan A is this: Find a multi-billionaire with a heart of gold and the vision to see that some plans are just crazy enough to work and convince him to buy the dinosaur and donate it to a small, hard-scrabble Southern town struggling in these tough economic times, so that town - my town - can use the dinosaur as a tourist attraction to bring in thousands -- if not millions -- of people off the interstate and reinvigorate the economy.
I paid 50 cents 35 years ago to see a two-headed snake at a carnival, so I figure folks will pay five or 10 bucks a piece to see the third most complete T. rex ever found, especially one with such a fine skull. The tourists will eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores and trigger our radar guns and we will prosper.
And what about that young boy with a dream? Well, he's not so young anymore, but his dream still lives. It was to be curator of a museum where our past is preserved, where what came before will never be forgotten. But that boy didn't think of this plan. I did, so I'm in charge of the dinosaur. In your face, Gary!
What multi-billionaire will step up? Bill Gates has $40 billion. That's a sum most of us cannot comprehend, so let me break it down: If he ordered from the Dollar Menu, he could take home 40 billion McDoubles with cheese. Warren Buffett has $37 billion. If he ordered from the Dollar Menu... well, you get my point.
Six million dollars is a mere drop in the golden bucket to them, but it could bring a dinosaur to a small, hard-scrabble Southern town struggling in these tough economic times (and coincidentally, it could build a bionic man in the 1970s).
We'll need a little extra money to erect brightly colored billboards along the interstate, plus construct a new dinosaur center and snack bar. We can throw up a couple of funeral home tents to keep it dry until we get that built. Then there's my consulting fee but we'll work out all those details after Samson arrives in the back of a U-Haul.
That's my new plan. It might just be crazy enough to work. If not, there's always Plan B.