Remember Yasmine Bleeth?

Yeah, I don't either, but the internet is constantly nudging me to explore what she looks like now.
So apparently she's looked better.

Wikipedia informs us she used to be addicted to cocaine, and could go five days without sleep.  I can't even go five days without cocaine (rim shot).

Here is why you should know more about Yasmine.  She was in the Don Johnson procedural "Nash Bridges" (1996-2001), and her character drove an electric sports car, which was repainted to match her eyes.


The manufacturer of that car was Zebra Motors, Inc., which no one outside of Alameda has ever heard of.



Remember the Zebra?  It could go five days without breaking down.

Don Johnson heard of it, and bought the company, kind of like Victor Kiam and Remington electric razors.  Here is the 1999 article reporting the sale:


So Don and his investing partners renamed the company Xebra Motors, because it makes a lot more sense if your going to run a company into the ground to give it a silly (technically unpronounceable) name.  I don't know if this Xebra or any vehicles they produced should be confused with another failing American company (ZAP, which stands for Zero Air Pollution, or more likely Zero Available Products) that manufactured a 3-wheeled electric vehicle called the ZAP Xebra in the late 2000s, every model of which the company was required to buy back and destroy.  When you produce something that not only fails, but has to be personally rounded up and destroyed, you have really accomplished something in the business world.

You are probably wondering what happened to Don Johnson, and if he can stay up all night, but I don't have the patience to look for his picture.  About 15 years ago, his ex-wife Melanie Griffith responded to an email I wrote, although it was likely her publicist.  I had a question about the movie Pacific Heights, because at the time I lived near 19th and Texas, where much of the movie had been filmed, but mostly I wanted to see if Melanie Griffith responded to emails.


Don's Model Z Roadster was apparently produced in very limited supply, because two years later, everything left of the company (including two automobiles and four frames) sold for $2,375.  Don had squandered $650,000 of his own funds before pulling the plug.  You laugh, but I'll bet the guy who bought those two roadsters at the bankruptcy auction, if he lives long enough, and maintains them (or at least doesn't let them rust out), will realize $3.2 million each at Barrett-Jackson somewhere down the road, if he can get out before we all convert from electric cars to Jetson's flying ones.


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