I was thinking it was a slow news day today, at least as far as the news page for work goes. But then there was this report that a man was mauled to death by Ving Rhames’ dogs.
My first reaction was to post it to the news column, of course. Then I began to wonder: can I play this man’s tragedy for laughs?
Then I thought: wow, I’m a bad person. Then I thought: Ooh! Something embarrassing! I can post that on my blog.
Basement studio, $449,000. Admittedly, the location is stellar, parking is included, and it’s 1070 feet of “garden-level” loft-style condo. But it’s still a basement studio asking $419 per square foot.
The WSJ says inventories are down slightly in Boston, but I don’t share their interpretation that it’s a sign of recovery. I think fewer people are trying to sell. The same is true of the argument that more mortgage applications mean more sales. It could be that more people are applying for mortgages, but it seems more likely that a smaller number of people are applying for several mortgages each, because lending standards have tightened and people are getting multiple rejections.
Refinance your mortgage to accommodate a disabled child, risk losing the home and the child. If we had ethical lenders, or ethical health care policies, that family wouldn’t be in that mess.
Instead, our national policy seems to be “get sick and die.” It’s clever, if unethical. Sick and poor people have more incentive to vote for Democratic candidates. So, we kill them.
My feature on the new Bravo show “Flipping Out” is up at MeeVee.
Flickr message I just got:
hey,are you the same mystery guy in Dishonorable dogs
moustache party album,the guy w/the cowboy hat and hairy
chimp arms? the face looks the same,but the uber hairy arms
and your virtually hairless arms makes me think its either
the same guy w/shaved arms,or youre 2 different people.Im a fur freak,and Ive been trying to find more of him. i
saw your similiar stache in DD’s contact list,so i took a
shot. I know youre straight and stuff,but a brother can
look!
No, I’m not. But thanks for asking!
If you criminalize abortion, what will the penalties be? In El Salvador, it’s up to 30 years in jail. In the US, nobody seems to have even considered the issue:
BostonBubble says Boston-area real estate prices for June 2007 are 3.79% down from June 2006, 9.37% below their peak in June 2005, and in fact slightly below the 2003 benchmark. That kind of cheers me up, because it implies a movement toward sanity.
Piggington has a clever chart showing a stunning drop in construction jobs in San Diego. That kind of makes me sad, because it means a lot of people have lost a lot of jobs, and it’s going to have a ripple effect on everything else.
This weekend, MeeVee will be featuring a short article I wrote on “Flipping Out,” a new Bravo show about a neurotic real estate investor. My thesis is that the show isn’t anything new (it’s the same premise, and nearly the same name, as “Blow Out” and “Work Out”), but that it does reflect a change in the way people feel about real estate.
That feeling, if you hadn’t noticed, is less positive than it used to be.
Poison vocalist Bret Michaels is on the cover of two major magazines this month: Diabetes Forecast and rival Diabetes Health.
As they say, “every rose has its thorn.” Or was that “your mama don’t dance and your daddy don’t rock ‘n’ roll?”
Megan has all the Bolivia pics up here. This picture is of a bag of young (fetal?) alpacas, ready to be used in the foundation of a new building for good luck.
Secretly Ironic 