New Listing by Kaali-Nagy

14 Rockwood Lane

14 Rockwood Lane, $7.925 million. I haven’t seen it since it was finished, but I had a client very interested in this project last spring, so I’ve reviewed the plans, walked the land, and spoken with both Kaali-Nagys, father and son, a couple of times about what was being planned, and I have no doubt this is a beautiful home. I’m looking forward to touring it. Really good location on some of the best land in Rockwood, which can be dodgy in areas, and, at least last spring, was price competitive with other houses built to this quality.

Of course, that was last spring. My own buyer wandered off, probably because he was an oil trader, and this has not been the year for oil, but before he did we were also considering a very similar, but larger (12,750 sq. ft. vs 8,375) Kaali-Nagy house at 3 Old Round Hill Lane, which was then priced at $8.995, and just last week that one was marked down to $7.995. I like the location and size of this new one better, but still ….

The decline of 1960-1970s mid-country homes

82 Butternut Hollow Rd

82 Butternut Hollow Road has dropped its price again and is now asking $2.050 million, down from its first price of $2.495. This is a perfectly decent house, with a good yard, decent location, and a pretty low price, to my eye, but it hasn’t sold. The owner paid $955,000 for it in 1993, which was a lot of money back then, and updated/renovated it in 1995. Those improvements look dated today, but I’ve been watching this house with curiosity, to see what houses of this era will sell for. So far, we don’t have the answer.

14 Hope Farm Rd

Similarly, 14 Hope Farm Road, a 1977 house that was priced at $5.495 million last June, is now marked down to $3.995, and probably has further to fall. It sold for $4,125,500 in 2004, sold again in the 2009 down market for $3.550 (after starting off in 2008 at $5.4 million), sold again, after some expensive improvements, for $3.487 in 2012 and, as noted has been trying to find a buyer now. There was no one at $5.495, and there may still be no one at $4.

I’m sure both these homes will find buyers in the spring market, but I’m curious to see what that market will pay.

After decrying the quality of cafeteria food, college kids (and their administrations) move on to the next big thing: fat “studies”

Coming to a campus near you

Colleges and universities once taught the canons of western, even eastern civilization. Now they teach “studies”, which are critiques of how modern society treats opressed people (by definition, any group except white, heterosexual males).

Fat studies come to campus.

Described as an “emerging academic field” that focuses on combating “weightism,” “fat stigma,” and the “weight based oppression” of fat people, “fat studies” courses are popping up on college campuses across the country.

Typically found in women and gender studies departments, fat studies courses don’t study obesity as a leading cause of death in America but rather approach fatness as a “social justice” issue, and usually focus on “fat liberation” movements and activism as ways to combat the “stigma” attached to obesity.

During the winter 2016 term (happening now), Oregon State University is offering a three-credit course simply titled “Fat Studies.” According to the university website, the course “Frames weight-based oppression as a social justice issue, exploring forms of activism used to counter weightism perpetuated throughout various societal institutions.”

Fat studies courses typically advocate against the position that obesity is unhealthy or undesirable, instead calling for understanding and acceptance. One such course offered by the University of Maryland College Park, singles out dieting as a “special enemy” that must be defeated. The syllabus for “Introduction To Fat Studies” states that the field of fat studies “is not concerned with the eradication of fatness, but with offering a sustained critique of anti-fat sentiment, discrimination, and policy.” Reading material for that course included reading something called the “Fat Liberation Manifesto.” Similarly, Willamette University offered a fat studies class this past fall titled “Fat!: The science, culture, and politics of weight.” According to the university website, the course “takes the perspective of the growing field of fat studies—an approach that asks us to suspend the dominant culture’s often reflexive and moralistic negative judgments about fat.”

Today, Natalie Wood could only get away with this scene because she proclaims she’s gay:

 

There’s no pleasing fussy Brits. Supermarket adds protein to its salads, gratis, gets complaints, not thanks

Nurse gripes after finding dead, mangled weasel in her take-away meal.

Rifat Asghar, 42, was eating a carrot and sweetcorn meal from the supermarket in Bradford, Yorkshire, for lunch when a colleague spotted a matted lump of fur.

On closer inspection, Ms Ashgar identified a leg and a tail – as well as what looked like an eye.

She took the salad back to the shop where she claims she was offered a £5 voucher.

An email from a team leader at the supermarket, said the specimen was sent for testing at a lab in London, which revealed it was a young common weasel.

The email said: ‘The specimen was very badly damaged, showing some skin, fur, a leg joint, a foot and tail.

‘It was concluded that the complaint specimen was most likely the remains of a young member of the species Mustela nivalis, the weasel.

‘It was not possible to determine where the specimen could have originated from due to the lack of distinguishing features.

‘It is in the opinion of Insect Research and Development Limited that as these weasels would not usually come indoors, the specimen may have been accidentally harvested with one of the components of the salad.

Geeze, they may not have apologized, but they did offer the whiner £5

You won’t see THIS kid failing to finish his meal