One Size Four Sizes Fit All “Knowledge is good.” –Inscription on statue at Faber College (fictional home of “Animal House”) It’s hard to argue with good-but-generic advice like “price carefully,” “be prepared,” and “first impressions count.” But, I otherwise didn’t glean anything especially insightful or useful from Money Magazine’s “2014 Real Estate Guide.” And I...Read More
Demand and (Very Limited) Supply Is Wes Anderson’s latest movie, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” as good as the reviews say? I don’t know: it was sold out last night at the one Twin Cities theatre showing it (“Uptown” located . . . you know where). Given the off-night and bitter cold (at least for mid-March),...Read More
Why Cash Reserves Can Be Misleading At least in Minnesota, anyone buying a property in a Common Interest Community (“CIC”) — typically, a condo or townhome — has 10 days after completing the Purchase Agreement to review the related Association documents. What should Buyers be on the lookout for? Not the Association’s pet policy —...Read More
Google + Facebook + Twitter = “The Circle”: The Life of a Corporate “Thought Guinea Pig” (“Mind Slave?”) “What matters, counts, and what is counted, matters.” –old saying “Whatever is counted . . . can be bought and sold.” –21st century update Las Vegas just has designs on its customers’ wallets. Google wants people’s souls,...Read More
#1. “The Revenge of Geography” by Robert Kaplan The latest effort by Mr. Kaplan (no relation) is with loaded historical insights and connect-the-dots observations about the Middle East. Unfortunately, it’s also chockfull of literary clunkers like this one: “Mountains are a conservative force, often protecting within their defiles indigenous cultures against the fierce modernizing ideologies...Read More
“The first few episodes of “Ray Donovan” are disappointing ” grandiose, predictable and painfully slow.” –“Family Ties, Boston-Style, in Los Angeles”; The New York Times (6/27/2013). I just watched the first, terrific episode — I taped tonight’s episode #2 — and I think The New York Times’ TV critic got it exactly wrong. My take?...Read More
