17 June 2005 at 5.13 pm · Filed under Culture, Random
The millionaire families of Laguna Beach need help! They can’t afford to pay their expenses from the awful landslide. Here is a list of profiles of the families who need your money. The city wants to give each family $3,000 a month for 30 months and $60,000 for geological studies.
Click here to donate thousands.
I like how the obviously gay couples — “Jo and Jm,” and HC and DK, the flight attendant whose Steinway piano was lost — are referred to in carefully gender-neutral ways or their sex is just left out, whereas everybody else is Mr. and Mrs. W.
It’s also amusing that they actually admit one house was “red-tagged” in a previous 1978 landslide. Now the same set of spoiled Californians is back for more money. I was just in Laguna Beach a month ago, telling people it was all a dream and it wouldn’t last. I was proven right sooner than I thought I would be. These people have no sense of perspective. One of them actually told me, “It’s hard to believe that places like Houston and Ohio really exist. It’s like the whole rest of the country is a big bubble.” No, you’re in the bubble.
By the way, the city mayor doesn’t want you to think they are millionaires, but before the landslide, they used to be — especially the one family that bought its house for $280,000 eighteen years ago.
7 June 2005 at 9.50 pm · Filed under Connextions Lofts, Culture, Random, Solely personal, Technology, The law
Hello, dear reader!
It has been many weeks since the last Before. I am pleased to bring you more thrilling news and insights from me! This entry discusses a minor victory of mine as well as several other random news items.
Tonight, I was elected to the board of the erratically-named ConneXtions Lofts, and, have also been elected to the post of Treasurer! (It’s not as glorious as it sounds; nobody wanted Treasurer, and I made the twin mistakes of 1) being the impressionable new guy and 2) having the last name Cash.)
Now when I am in the elevator and it unexpectedly stops on the third or second floors, I will have the pleasure and power of barking, “Out! Out! I’m an executive officer of the Board!” (Note to fellow neighbors: It is my honor to serve you as a member of your Board for the next three years. I am looking forward to dedicating myself to the betterment of our community for everyone’s benefit. Now stop taking the elevators if you live on 3 or 2.)
No, seriously, if any of my neighbors do read this, thank you very much for choosing me and I do hope to work with all of you to make it a better place. Send me an e-mail or call me any time.
At least tonight didn’t go like the last election I was in, eleven years ago, which was for President of the Class of 1995. I stupidly ran a short but extremely negative campaign, consisting of a single speech bashing the current class president. I don’t even remember what I said (actually this is a lie), but it was pretty embarrassing and I think I lost 440-10. Also, he later refused to go to the prom with me. Eddie Harris, if you are out there, that day will be with me for the rest of my life.
Now for the grab bag of items.
- A reader asks, “Does a cyclist’s failure to wear a helmet constitute contributory negligence that would bar the cyclist from successfully suing a car driver who hits the cyclist?” The answer, gentle reader, is no (unless helmets are required by law in your jurisdiction). So, ride on and feel the wind in your hair.
- I have just discovered the Urban Dictionary. I think I am a couple years behind the times on this, but at least I now know what holla back girl actually means. This is the resource I was looking for to stay “fresh” and “hip” as the popular culture evolves during the next decade. I won’t be able to enjoy it due to law school.
- I visited the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati a couple weeks ago. This was the building the New York Times called something like, “perhaps the most important building since the end of the Cold War.” Well… ehhh. It was just OK. It was done by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who of course is most famous for her stage design of the Pet Shop Boys’ Nightlife tour (actually, this is also a lie, although she did design the stage). The building is vertically-oriented, and the floors are connected by shallow, suspended stairways. Unfortunately, the stairways seemed really cheap. Arnie and I panned the exhibits and I think we would have to say the best part was the gigantic elevator, the biggest one I have ever seen. Still, if you’re in Cincinnati and you have an hour and eight bucks, you might want to do it.
