- ‘Lil Knut gets a death fax! (I may just start a Twitter account and go all Knut news all the time. Who’s with me?)
- CTA chief Frank Kreusi resigns amid system wide clusterfuck. Time Out Chicago’s Scott Smith finally able to retire his Frank Kreusi voodoo doll
- The Onion skewers This American Life. No one gets out alive.
- Get in the know with your 21st Century cribsheets. (Via Sean at Cosmic Variance)
And finally, who wouldn’t want a twitter feed about this…
The New York Times joined the housing bubble bandwagon with an article arguing that all those hidden costs involved in owning a home make it less the “can’t lose” investment the National Realtors Association would have you believe. The best part of the feature was the interactive calculator to help you determine whether it’s better to buy or rent in your situation. I’ve used a lot of these kinds of widgets in the past, and most of them – no matter the numbers you enter – end with flashing lights warning that if you don’t buy immediately you and your family will end up begging for change at the bus depot within the next 5 years. The Times calculator seems to be a much more complete and realistic look at the costs and benefits of both the buying and renting scenarios. For me, it was a bit shocking. Taking my current rent and what it would cost to buy a comparable home in the neighborhood and assuming that 1. housing values rise at 4% annually (optimistic for the coming years) 2. my rent increases at 4% annually and 3. all that extra money I would use for a mortgage is put into investments with a return of 6%…. the result is that renting will save me money for the entire 30 year stretch of the mortgage. And yes, this takes into account all the tax deductions you get from owning, but also factors in buying and selling costs, maintenance, and assessments, etc. Now, my situation may be unique, and if housing values did increase at a higher rate, then it would pay off to buy (but it would take about 15 to 20 years to break even). It’s admittedly hard to be practical about these things… with prices starting to fall (plummet?), I was getting a bit of home buying fever.
You may remember our furry friend, Knut, the ‘lil polar bear at the Berlin Zoo. Turns out a death threat from animal rights activists does wonders for one’s public profile. Knut just turned up on this month’s cover of Vanity Fair (alas, he’s forced to share the cover with Leo on the US edition). He made his public debut over the Easter weekend in Berlin, and his fans were lined up to see him. The German weekly Der Spiegel described the masses as “worship” reaching papal proportions. But why rely on big media to “spin” the Knut story. Go on Flickr, and with a quick search for Knut, it’s like you’re there at the zoo. Thanks, internets!
TV offers few surprises these days -but this weekend, I was actually shocked by what I witnessed during one of my favorite cooking shows, New Scandinavian Cooking (my deep addiction to culinary television will have to be explained at a later date). The show is hosted by the somewhat zany Andreas Viestad, who’s halting speaking style and tendency to cook outdoors in bizarre locales has me tuning in each week. After explaining Norway’s abundance of salmon, he turned from the camera and waded out into a rushing mountain stream. He dipped his head underwater a few times, and soon came up a huge salmon he caught with his bare hands! This was not staged – dude was literally wrestling with a 4 ft. long monster of a fish. He then proceeded to take it to the river’s edge and cook it up over a campfire (and served with a lovely sour cream, vinegar and salmon roe sauce). Let’s see you try that Bobby Flay! Emeril? No? I didn’t think so.
When I was growing up, there were a few things my parents forgot to tell me:
1 – Bed sheets can be really, really expensive
2 – Shoe repair saves you the money you will need for bed sheets
3 – It is very, very difficult to grow and maintain a reasonably nice lawn
This summer, I am going to conquer my lawn. It is my quest. It is my grail. It is my Rushmore. My backyard is quite small – maybe 20 x 20, but it holds potential. If I can’t succeed this year, I am considering paving over the whole damn thing and putting in a four square court and a tether ball (which, for a backup plan, is pretty great). Last summer, we started some container gardening on our back porch, so I’m feeling the green thumb. It’s early April, and I just laid down my first seed. Crabgrass has been a big problem the last few years and the numerous bare spots (ok, bare swaths) are prime real estate for that devil weed. It also places me in a bit of a quandry – you see, I want to be good to mother earth, but I’ve done my research and Crabgrass calls for pulling out the big guns. That’s right, I’m talking about pre-emergent pesticides. I know, I know, I am going to eco-hell, but I don’t know what else to do. Must I Agent-Orange the crabgrass back to the stone age, or can I find some touchy feely organic medicine dance remedy. Time is short – I’m guessing crabgrass begins to germinate in late April. If no other solution comes up, I’m going to have to lay down the law and let God sort out the details later.
“Ok, I’ll be hiding behind the oak tree off to your right. The signal to wrap up the press conference will be an owl call. Something like ‘HOO, HOO’. Got it? Good.”
Even as Democrats push to have the troops out of Iraq by Labor Day, the US Army continues to find new and creative ways to sign up the youth of America for active duty. The latest hot spot: paintball venues! Newsweek is reporting that military recruiters are finding plenty of enthusiastic enlistees among the paintball set. The best part – they’re already trained…. sort of… Baghdad is really just one big game of capture the flag.
- To continue this week’s adorable furry animal theme, Berlin Zoo asked by animal rights activist to kill Polar Bear cub. Perhaps a Save Toby like campaign is called for… [Update: Colbert's on the case!]
- How I got my daughter to ditch High School Musical and start listening to the Beatles: Lego Album covers! (via Schadenfreude)
- I’m not touching this Obama analysis with a ten foot pole.
- On eve of television debut, Ira Glass lauded, mocked, and turned to for sage advice.
It looks like my dollar coin enthusiasm has finally paid off! I am in possession of two semi-valuable misprints of the new Washington dollar coins. There should be inscriptions on the side edges of the coins that read “E Pluribus Unum“, “In God We Trust” along with a stamp indicating the date and location where it was minted. It turns out quite a few coins didn’t get the full treatment on the edges. It’s being reported that most of the defected coins are from the Philadelphia mint, but mine are from Denver. Some conservatives were already upset that “In God We Trust” was located on the side edges of the coin, so I can’t wait to see the reaction to this news. Any atheists out there with some deep pockets who want to buy a couple collectibles?
Unusual American coinage holds a dear place in my heart. I’ve always had a thing for Kennedy half dollars, bicentennial quarters, and Eisenhower silver dollars. So it came as no surprise that, at the young age of 26, I fell hard for a little golden lady named Sacja Sakoow Sacagawea. I, along with 8 other patriots, embraced her – using her in my everyday economic exchanges around town. Alas, it was not meant to be. Maybe it was 9/11… Maybe our good nation was just not ready for the bulky pockets, the $25 rolls from the bank, or the smug satisfaction of knowing that using dollar coins would save the U.S. Mint millions on production costs each year, and that we might finally join the rest of the world in embracing the metric system dumping small denomination bills. Whatever the reason, the terrorists won, and I was left holding the bag – the very, very heavy burlap bag. Well, here they come again – only this time with more dead white guy flavor! After the success of the 50 State Quarters, now comes the 42 ex-Presidents leading the dollar coin charge. Having been burned in this kind of relationship before, I will try to stay away. But already, I can hear its siren song calling me to it.
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