Half.com, 97834

Remember half.com, the popular used media marketplace that got bought by eBay and turned into one of their red-headed step-subsidiaries? Remember when dot-coms had the money to pull wacky publicity stunts? Remember when Half.com, the company, bought the rights to rename Halfway, OR, and call it Half.com, OR?

Neither did we, really -- December 1999 was so long ago! -- but we were reminded by William Drenttel's What Ever Happened to Half.com, Oregon? on Design Observer. It's an interesting article, and you should read the whole thing, but we'll reveal the end for the spoiler whores among you:

I hit the phones, calling local businesses like the Clear Creek Farm Bed & Breakfast, the Birch Leaf Guest House, the Hillside Bed & Breakfast and the Halfway Supper Club: no answer anywhere. I assumed Angela's Beauty Salon might be open for business on a summer afternoon — yet here, too: no answer. I left a message at Ronda Dillman Insurance Agency. Finally, I tried The Shop ("Need your car checked out? At The Shop, we don't just work on cars, we fix them."). A fellow named Gordon R. Kaesemeyer answered. He told me he was busy , but could give me a few minutes.

I asked him about the town's decision to rename itself Half.com, which, Kaesemeyer told me, turned out to be a rather short-term arrangement. "We just passed a proclamation that lasted for one year." I asked him whether the town actually got the money and computers promised by Half.com: "Yeah, we got our money and some computers," he assured me. " 'Course that just caused some problems like money always does." Encouraged by his answers, I thanked him for his time and asked him to put me in touch with Halfway's mayor.

"That would be me," he replied.