Open Thread

Let me surmise as benson and I have talked extensively at PLUSA gatherings: Benson travels this fair country of ours a lot, and sees how many people live lives that are respectable and dignified and content. Then he logs on here and sees people extolling a few select options over and above what he sees in his travels. The breadth he witnesses in his workaday life perhaps clues him into perspectives we wouldn’t otherwise see.

Posted by: infinitejester at November 20, 2009 12:26 PM

7 True Words:
I officially hate High Efficiency washing machines!!

Last week, after a load of whites my partners undershirts still smelled like his deodorant. This week, I added baking soda to the detergent and it worked.

BUT…today, one of the loads came out sopping wet. And it figures it would be the load with my big bath towels!

That Waverly thread yesterday encapsulated exactly why I dislike Mr. B and his mindset. Allow me to explain:

-If I had to give an award between the two owners (the fiberama guy and the “restorer”), I’d give it to the former. Why so? Because his renovation is more authentic and practical. Obviously, he or she was a person of more modest means and as such, worked with venacular materials at hand (read: Home Depot). Like it or not, the venacular materials of our day are those one sees in the suburbs: fake stone fronts, acrylic awanings, etc. In case you don’t realize it, the vast majority of wealth in this country is in the suburbs, and THAT is where the manufacturers of commerical building materials will aim their product offerings. What is a guy like this supposed to do? As I see it, he did exactly what a guy in his situation was supposed to do, and bravo for him. Would you rather he just live with decrepit doors and windows, so that he not offend your aesthetic sensibilities?

-On the other hand, the person who is upgrading this building obviously has means. What does he do? Recreates a 19th-century facade, even though it had been completely obliterated. Talk about intellectual and artistic bankruptcy. I get it: 19th century brownstone Brooklyn was nirvana, and all that we in the 21st century can do is to fabricate adult Disneylands where we recreate this lost aesthetic paradise. I guess that we no longer need architects to create new idioms. Please.

-I also resent the sneering that goes on towards the “fiberama” renovations (to put a name on it). Again I ask: if you were in these people’s shoes, and had modest means, and other more pressing concerns in life, what would you do?? What venacular material would you advise that they use?? I guess this guy should consider himself lucky though, in that he was only branded a philistine. If we were talking about a developer or a pastor of a 30-person church, then we roll out words like “greedy” or “corrupt”.

-Finally, I tire of the mis-use of the word “historic”. Old private homes are largely not “historic”. They may be fine old homes, but there is nothing “historic” about them, except perhaps in the architectural sense. History is the study of past public affairs, not private quarters.

stevieb, no one is being glib about homelessness in general. We’re just trying to figure you out. If you were financially saved by what’s rantings and managed to avoid buying a house at the top of the market, as you have said, it is hard to square with your implicit suggestion that you are or have been homeless and that you are subsisting on taco bell. You’ve been hounding people all over the place on this site, but what is up with you? Where is your DP now, if what saved you from spending it on a house?

If, instead of cyber-stalking and lobbyng e-grenades, you came forward and told us a bit about your own real deal, you might not get the negative responses you’ve been getting. But right now, you don’t seem for real.

you can have ’em both, DIBS. i thought it would be a short-term thing when they got together but now 3 years have passed, and the bf is older and is part of an impermeable cliche, so i’m out outsville. before this relationship the friend and i were inseparable.