Should add here my favorite lines from White Christmas:
When Crosby & Kaye discover Dean Jagger (as General Waverly) at the ski lodge, and Kaye says "General Waverly...a janitor!" and then Jagger says "Worse than that – I own the place" and Kaye says in horror "General Waverly – a landlord!"
Yeah, I briefly entertained the idea of buying a home myself ("the mortgage would be less than rent!") until I realized that I'd have to maintain stuff on my own, and I was having a hard time with one room in a shared apartment. No offense, at least they finished the renovations here before I moved in, and left several bottles of water in the fridge.
Eep. Actually I was referring to the pix of Pere Ubu's new place. although I'm sure your new place is splendid. Also: "...effulgences of self-expression..." is my new favorite phrase, and I am determined to commit a few of those myself.
Years ago in our first house, I was watching the old, Jeremy Irons rendition of "Brideshead Revisited" where Lord Marchmain comes home to die, and wants a certain fancy antique bed taken apart and reinstalled on the ground floor. "Have the estate carpenters take care of it," he commanded. That's what I want. Shouldn't every home come with estate carpenters?
My best friend (and musical collaborator) here in Japan is from Baltimore (well, he was here until he up and took his family to NYC for filthy lucre--a teaching gig to support his family that I understand but find hard to forgive, missing them all dearly).
I've also been fascinated by how many neighborhood scenes in Homicide and The Wire look like they could have been shot in Halifax (NS).
FWIW, I've never really been interested in owning a house either, but best of luck in the new digs!
I'm now at an age where everything reminds me of a line from an old movie, so of course I thought of the bartender in The Lady Eve when they run out of Pikes Pale, the waiter says "But they want the ale that won for Yale, Rah, Rah." Since it's Preston Sturges, the bartender says "Tell 'em to go to... Harvard."
My wife and I honeymooned there (and the rest of Nova Scotia). We didn’t stay long in Halifax, just one night. The rest of our time there was spent traveling to various B&Bs, enjoying the scenery and the friendly people there. So I don’t have a bad or good view of it. One thing I do remember are the brightly colored houses lining the arm of the harbor fron the Atlantic. It reminded me of pictures of seaside houses in France. Never saw anything like that in Baltimore. Also, they really do call it backbacon. My wife thought I was making fun of them when I ordered some at a Halifax restaurant. I had to show her the menu to prove I wasn’t, that I was just speaking the vernacular, eh.
One night and one day is about all you need for Halifax, in my experience. The rest of Nova Scotia is much more interesting, charming, bleak, gorgeous, etc.
One movie portrayal of Baltimore that's stuck with me even though it's brief is from Marnie, the little neighborhood of row houses with tiny stoops that Marnie has moved her mother to after a lifetime of entertaining sailors. Hitchcock had a way of capturing a place with one or two deft shots, this one screams "Desperately clinging to middle-class respectability."
And it appears to be shot in one of a couple of maritime nabes -- some of which have become quite grand since, though others (looking at you, Curtis Bay) have not.
The permastone facades, painted door screens and window tchotchke displays are what screams Baltimore to me. And a tavern on every corner, with a few sprinkled in between.
I love the Museum of Visionary Art a whole lot, and their gift shop is magnificent as well.
Had to google Permastone (I am getting college credit for this, right?) and it sounds kinda upscale to me, but I grew up surrounded by houses with that asphalt siding that's supposed to look like brick. Some sharp salesman must have ripped through the place in the late 50's and filled his order book.
Perhaps it's changed hands— I certainly hope it has — but 20 years ago it was an unsanitary, poorly maintained and badly run fire-trap. (My brother was hired to manage the physical plant.) I saw a photo of the electrical panel, which was scary. Exit doors were chained shut, despite state law. Food was stored on the floor, rats got into it, and it was heated up again next day. Now you have an idea what to look out for.
Our food co-op in the Bay Area had platoons of rats making headway in their assault on the bulk bins. My buddy had a small rifle that could take shot shells and we would camp out under the floorboards after midnight just to keep 'em honest.
We're (quasi) homeowners and learned early how to do yard work--you hire it out. Fortunately our yard's not that big (and the koi pond takes up some space).
Good luck, hon. As a Bawlmoron from the white flight 'burbs, I both do and do not miss the place. But I was back for a wedding a few weeks ago and, with all apologies to Dorothy, I think she missed a word because in my experience "There is no place that smells like home". Nostalgia for days. Enjoy the next chapter.
Best of luck to you Roy! As a single woman in my late fifties, I've never taken the home ownership plunge myself. I've lived in a housing cooperative for the last 17 years which is as close as I've come. I wish you all good things ❤️
Co-ops rule! I know a couple, now approaching their 60's, who've been living in the same co-op since their student days. I live there a while myself, and we joked about turning it into a retirement home.
I usually make my way to Baltimore 2-3 times per year, either for a baseball game or for duckpin. I am enamored with Fells Point, probably the nicest part of the city (and much better than the touristy Inner Harbor). I have friends that moved from DC to Baltimore about 5 years ago (they live near Mobtown Brewing), not too far from the old Natty Boh factory. While the city is both poor and corrupt, I have found it charming (maybe if I'm ever mugged, I'll have a different tale). Check out the Patterson Park pagoda when your chaos settles and you need some quiet zen.
When we moved east in (checks watch) 1959 we shipped via North American Van Lines. Later on, moved back west.
When we moved them from one western house to a townhouse (vast downsizing required) in (checks abacus) 2003, we dumped whatever was in the still unopened North American Van Lines boxes without bothering to look inside them.
As a bookish person, I suggest Alain de Botton's "The Architecture of Happiness" which got me through the first two years of owning and rehabbing an old house. That guy knows style, for sure.
Try Philly. It’s got everything a Roy could ever want. Mural Capital of the World….even in the rundown areas, sports fans crazier than shithouse rats, the food & restaurant scene has become world renowned, and colloquialisms & accents as obnoxious as NYC….in some cases even more. There will never be another NYC, (is that good?..), but Philly still has loads of that grungy style you and I crave, and yet it’s a manageable joint.
Let us stay in touch to make it happen. Right now, there’s a lot of ‘old guy’ stuff going on that I have to deal with, but there’s plenty of brightness a-wait in’ on the horizon.
Just returned from today's tour of frescos at the VOA Building in DC. The guide says there are more public murals in DC than pretty much anywhere in the country. Most are indoors. It's in GSA's budget to commission public art whenever a new building is designed or an old one remodeled. Anyway, for some reason frescos became a thing in DC in the WPA-era 30's.
These days the bulk of new GSA buildings are at the border – new INS and HSA offices and checkpoints.
Don't mind me - I'm just reacting to what's been a bad year so far. My almost century-old house needed a new roof I've been expecting (at almost $7K) and a major redo of the main sewer line to the street I wasn't that set me back almost $13K.
On the other hand, we bought the place in 1998 and this is the first time it's needed that kind of money invested. So there's that. All in all, I wouldn't go back to renting. Having to answer to a landlord sucks, even when they're not outright assholes.
as a new member of the landed gentry, I expect to hear a lot more urging everybody back to work and get those homeless off my street..and I just want to be the first to call you bourgeois scum.
also, what the hell is with the suspiciously tall box?
and, if you ever need advice on maintenance or whether the $25k estimate for the roof is thievery, please ask.
Great to hear, hon. Hope it goes well. I recently moved back to Philly when my wife got a new gig. After 20 years in DC and, earlier, 15 in the East Village and Brooklyn, it feels surprisingly good to be back home. When I lived in Greenpoint in the 90s, the Poles ruled the streets, and I couldn’t call their collective style glam. But I know what you mean, the Manhattan sparkle rubbed off. Philly has come along way since I Iast lived here and there’s money around, but it’s still poor compared with DC. And the casual gun violence and walking wounded of the opiod crisis is all-too real. But I dig the daily glimpses of style more than the spotlight. At my age that’s enough.
Buffalo has a bit of this vibe as well, but it's not as old or concentrated. But check to "ethnic," and 24-hour corner taverns catering to shift workers.
My cat shit in the middle of my bed once. He had tried to bring home a snake and got bit on the cheek, then developed an abscess. Surgery followed and I kept him inside until I was sure he had recovered. I was pretty sure after the bed incident
Wow, literally shit the bed? With all the metaphorical bed-shitting going in, good to know the metaphor has some basis in reality, although glad it's not my bed.
Well, look at you with the fancy-schmancy U-Haul™ brand boxes! I marked my transition to middle class the first time I actually BOUGHT boxes for a move instead of hitting all the liquor stores in town. Now I feel like I'm being noble, leaving the free boxes for the college students who need 'em more.
I've moved on/up from cadging cardboard. Now I troll the liquor stores for the wooden boxes. Eventually my entire apartment will look and smell like a posh wine retailer, minus the wine.
What, you've never heard of dumpster-diving?! The only boxes I'd ever pay for are those wardrobe boxes. P.S. Bicycle boxes are good for large artworks or mirrors, and liquor boxes keep you from putting making your book boxes too heavy.
The liquor store box thing was easier when 1.) people were nicer and 2.) I had, like, fifty pounds of possessions not counting guitars and amps. (Actually I still come in under 500 lbs but the missus is a whooooole 'nother story.)
As someone living in an apartment cluttered with stuff but whose entire worldly possessions are down to a change of clothes and a nail clipper, I can relate to that "whooooole 'nother story."
The last time I did the liquor store box thing, we had more than a hundred. My wife and I seem to be locked in some kind of contest, "Whoever dies with the most books wins."
I'm still living out of boxes to some extent; I'm still working on getting bookshelves and 90% of my stuff is in the garage in quarantine so's I don't bring any lil' friends with me from the old place. But I can now put my clothes away in a chest of drawers and hang shirts in my closets, and I finally have a damn CHAIR I can sit in and relax with my feet up, and I should have a fucking table in the kitchen soon that I can eat dinner on like a damn human. And the street is lined with trees and I'm within walking distance of my favorite part of the city, with bookstores and boutiques and restaurants. I don't hate coming home from work. "Ah, my iron lung's working again!"
I’ve been to Balmer a couple of times. I had a love interest there (I was crazy about her but she only liked me, but liked me enough to give me hope) who showed me around the city. (She also took me to Bertha’s Mussels, somewhere outside of Baltimore — yum yum!) Went to an Orioles game at the old stadium (Memorial, I think it was called, the one before the one at Camden Yards), from which I remember 3 things: Eddie Murray’s 8th inning home run that won the game for the O’s (after the crowd chanted “Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!” before each pitch; the San Diego Chicken mascot was subbing as the Orioles’ mascot, and he (she?) gleefully tore apart an effigy of a Mariner player, the Os’ opponents that day; and in the section next
to ours, someone was wearing a Mariners cap and when he was walking to the aisle to get snacks or use the can someone who noticed the enemy insignia stood up and pointed at the fellow and started another chant of “ugly hat! ugly hat!” (apparently people there are big on impromptu chants!). The “victim” took that in good humor and was laughing through it all, as it was obvious that the hometeam fans weren’t expressing malice or hostility — unlike some other more glamorous MLB cities’ fans, like NYC or (shudder, Boston) might have.
I think this may comport with Roy’s assessment of Baltimoreans. I hope you enjoy your stay there, Roy, however long that is.
Whee!
Real Estate.
Dawn hid behind the lucite because otherwise people be all cleanin' up birds 'n stuff...
Should add here my favorite lines from White Christmas:
When Crosby & Kaye discover Dean Jagger (as General Waverly) at the ski lodge, and Kaye says "General Waverly...a janitor!" and then Jagger says "Worse than that – I own the place" and Kaye says in horror "General Waverly – a landlord!"
They had their values straight back then.
Yeah, I briefly entertained the idea of buying a home myself ("the mortgage would be less than rent!") until I realized that I'd have to maintain stuff on my own, and I was having a hard time with one room in a shared apartment. No offense, at least they finished the renovations here before I moved in, and left several bottles of water in the fridge.
And from the pix, it sure looks like you scored a fine place. Congratulations again.
Thanks. I assure you the other 341 rooms are even more impressive.
Eep. Actually I was referring to the pix of Pere Ubu's new place. although I'm sure your new place is splendid. Also: "...effulgences of self-expression..." is my new favorite phrase, and I am determined to commit a few of those myself.
Years ago in our first house, I was watching the old, Jeremy Irons rendition of "Brideshead Revisited" where Lord Marchmain comes home to die, and wants a certain fancy antique bed taken apart and reinstalled on the ground floor. "Have the estate carpenters take care of it," he commanded. That's what I want. Shouldn't every home come with estate carpenters?
God, yes! I still quote that line whenever some particularly irksome household task impends.
You talk as if I made this decision myself. You know I'm married, right?
Well, *yeah*, but I was just mentioning. No offense.
My best friend (and musical collaborator) here in Japan is from Baltimore (well, he was here until he up and took his family to NYC for filthy lucre--a teaching gig to support his family that I understand but find hard to forgive, missing them all dearly).
I've also been fascinated by how many neighborhood scenes in Homicide and The Wire look like they could have been shot in Halifax (NS).
FWIW, I've never really been interested in owning a house either, but best of luck in the new digs!
I am familiar not with Baltimore nor Halifax, but spent just enough hours in each to see your point.
Not the cities as such, but some neighborhoods seem very similar (I've never actually been to Baltimore).
I’ve been to both, but similarity didn’t strike me. But I’m not particularly perceptive that way.
Never been to Halifax, and only know the expression "go to hell of Halifax, I don't care which," which is not promising.
I'm now at an age where everything reminds me of a line from an old movie, so of course I thought of the bartender in The Lady Eve when they run out of Pikes Pale, the waiter says "But they want the ale that won for Yale, Rah, Rah." Since it's Preston Sturges, the bartender says "Tell 'em to go to... Harvard."
I have not been to Halifax, but they used to have a great music scene, with Thrush Hermit, and I think Sloan, The Super Friendz and Sarah MacLachlan
Sloan!
My wife and I honeymooned there (and the rest of Nova Scotia). We didn’t stay long in Halifax, just one night. The rest of our time there was spent traveling to various B&Bs, enjoying the scenery and the friendly people there. So I don’t have a bad or good view of it. One thing I do remember are the brightly colored houses lining the arm of the harbor fron the Atlantic. It reminded me of pictures of seaside houses in France. Never saw anything like that in Baltimore. Also, they really do call it backbacon. My wife thought I was making fun of them when I ordered some at a Halifax restaurant. I had to show her the menu to prove I wasn’t, that I was just speaking the vernacular, eh.
One night and one day is about all you need for Halifax, in my experience. The rest of Nova Scotia is much more interesting, charming, bleak, gorgeous, etc.
I love both Baltimore and Halifax, which probably says a lot about me.
One movie portrayal of Baltimore that's stuck with me even though it's brief is from Marnie, the little neighborhood of row houses with tiny stoops that Marnie has moved her mother to after a lifetime of entertaining sailors. Hitchcock had a way of capturing a place with one or two deft shots, this one screams "Desperately clinging to middle-class respectability."
That's it!
Very good! I see that too!
And it appears to be shot in one of a couple of maritime nabes -- some of which have become quite grand since, though others (looking at you, Curtis Bay) have not.
The permastone facades, painted door screens and window tchotchke displays are what screams Baltimore to me. And a tavern on every corner, with a few sprinkled in between.
I love the Museum of Visionary Art a whole lot, and their gift shop is magnificent as well.
Had to google Permastone (I am getting college credit for this, right?) and it sounds kinda upscale to me, but I grew up surrounded by houses with that asphalt siding that's supposed to look like brick. Some sharp salesman must have ripped through the place in the late 50's and filled his order book.
Formstone, not Permastone. My bad.
Oh I had to look up Formstone. Apparently John Waters describes it as "the polyester of brick".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formstone
Sheesh. Evabody lookin' up evathang. AI can't come soon enuff.
Congratulations! May you and Kia be very happy in your new place!
P.S. Don't eat anything at Lexington Market.
Ok but why?
Perhaps it's changed hands— I certainly hope it has — but 20 years ago it was an unsanitary, poorly maintained and badly run fire-trap. (My brother was hired to manage the physical plant.) I saw a photo of the electrical panel, which was scary. Exit doors were chained shut, despite state law. Food was stored on the floor, rats got into it, and it was heated up again next day. Now you have an idea what to look out for.
Rat Patrol is not something to delegate.
Our food co-op in the Bay Area had platoons of rats making headway in their assault on the bulk bins. My buddy had a small rifle that could take shot shells and we would camp out under the floorboards after midnight just to keep 'em honest.
You should have seen him just about midnight
It's been recently renovated, but I haven't been to visit. It is said to have improved. https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/culture/food-drink/lexington-market-new-food-stalls-treats-NNWZYSK5EFDXBII2YODDMGDBJA/
Moving is a big deal!And so soon after
surgery! You're a badass Roy - never change.
"they float past like life preservers from a wrecked ship."
A great phrase that I'm sure I will use
often!
If we ask, how many folks here would lie
and say they didn't have to look up "cynosure."
Do you have a yard? I cannot envision you doing yard work. Of course , I couldn't picture you with a cat or listening to the Grateful Dead.
Where do we send the housewarming gifts?
Certainty that the sky is blue...?
I'm absolutely positive that cynicism is the correct response to all situations. And the last syllable is pronounced like "Oh, suuuure..."
There's less yard here than in out rented DC house, which I was also obliged to cut and bitterly resented
The cutting, or the yard itself? (I fcking hate yards)
Both
This explains SOOOO much...
We're (quasi) homeowners and learned early how to do yard work--you hire it out. Fortunately our yard's not that big (and the koi pond takes up some space).
I didn't have to look up "cynosure" because I read Tim Truman's comic "Grimjack".
Not ashamed to say I Googled it, I thought it might be on the final.
All the cool kidz know google is not capitalized. Just sayin'.
Not when one has verbed it
Ooh Grimjack! I loved that comic. It was making a corned beef hash of genres before it was cool!
I really liked the life preservers *checks* simile. I had to wonder, though, were they occupied or empty? Because whoa if unoccupied!
Whoa.
Is how I read it.
I watched our staff drift in from lunch .They floated past like life preservers from a wrecked ship.
They were all, every last one of them , high as fuck.
but damp underneath.
Good luck, hon. As a Bawlmoron from the white flight 'burbs, I both do and do not miss the place. But I was back for a wedding a few weeks ago and, with all apologies to Dorothy, I think she missed a word because in my experience "There is no place that smells like home". Nostalgia for days. Enjoy the next chapter.
Best of luck to you Roy! As a single woman in my late fifties, I've never taken the home ownership plunge myself. I've lived in a housing cooperative for the last 17 years which is as close as I've come. I wish you all good things ❤️
Co-ops rule! I know a couple, now approaching their 60's, who've been living in the same co-op since their student days. I live there a while myself, and we joked about turning it into a retirement home.
No joke.
Everyone I know wants to establish a compound somewheres but can't afford it separately...
I usually make my way to Baltimore 2-3 times per year, either for a baseball game or for duckpin. I am enamored with Fells Point, probably the nicest part of the city (and much better than the touristy Inner Harbor). I have friends that moved from DC to Baltimore about 5 years ago (they live near Mobtown Brewing), not too far from the old Natty Boh factory. While the city is both poor and corrupt, I have found it charming (maybe if I'm ever mugged, I'll have a different tale). Check out the Patterson Park pagoda when your chaos settles and you need some quiet zen.
"While the city is both poor and corrupt"
(raises hand in native South Side Chicagoan)
I do not like thee, Doctor Fells Point,
The reason why – I cannot tells joint;
But this I know, and know full well anoint,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fells Point.
In the midst of all those boxes, you can pretend you’re in the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
…which implies that somewhere in all that, there‘s this one box THAT YOU MUST NEVER OPEN
Well there are a few I bet I never will
My parents hereby throw down:
When we moved east in (checks watch) 1959 we shipped via North American Van Lines. Later on, moved back west.
When we moved them from one western house to a townhouse (vast downsizing required) in (checks abacus) 2003, we dumped whatever was in the still unopened North American Van Lines boxes without bothering to look inside them.
So you gotta ways to go, pal.
(… a few?)
Are you implying Roy is not one of the Top. Men. Top. Men.
As a bookish person, I suggest Alain de Botton's "The Architecture of Happiness" which got me through the first two years of owning and rehabbing an old house. That guy knows style, for sure.
That sounds like just the thing
And for the right amount of dissonance, best read while listening to Gram Parsons sing “The Streets of Baltimore.”
Try Philly. It’s got everything a Roy could ever want. Mural Capital of the World….even in the rundown areas, sports fans crazier than shithouse rats, the food & restaurant scene has become world renowned, and colloquialisms & accents as obnoxious as NYC….in some cases even more. There will never be another NYC, (is that good?..), but Philly still has loads of that grungy style you and I crave, and yet it’s a manageable joint.
I bet you've found a lot of joy there. Of course you're just naturally joyous. But we're close, maybe we can meet there!
Let us stay in touch to make it happen. Right now, there’s a lot of ‘old guy’ stuff going on that I have to deal with, but there’s plenty of brightness a-wait in’ on the horizon.
About them murals:
Just returned from today's tour of frescos at the VOA Building in DC. The guide says there are more public murals in DC than pretty much anywhere in the country. Most are indoors. It's in GSA's budget to commission public art whenever a new building is designed or an old one remodeled. Anyway, for some reason frescos became a thing in DC in the WPA-era 30's.
These days the bulk of new GSA buildings are at the border – new INS and HSA offices and checkpoints.
Money is something you don't have to worry about as a homeowner; your house will make sure you never have any. Congratulations, I guess.
Ugh thanks
Don't mind me - I'm just reacting to what's been a bad year so far. My almost century-old house needed a new roof I've been expecting (at almost $7K) and a major redo of the main sewer line to the street I wasn't that set me back almost $13K.
On the other hand, we bought the place in 1998 and this is the first time it's needed that kind of money invested. So there's that. All in all, I wouldn't go back to renting. Having to answer to a landlord sucks, even when they're not outright assholes.
Sorry for your loss, and mine! But glad you came to like the homeowning thing. Can't see it myself.
Ah, you'll be complainin' about real estate taxes in no time!
Oh my god. They tax property? What the fuck
Roy, Roy...
Supposedly it goes to the neighborhood schools
well, we knew you when.
as a new member of the landed gentry, I expect to hear a lot more urging everybody back to work and get those homeless off my street..and I just want to be the first to call you bourgeois scum.
also, what the hell is with the suspiciously tall box?
and, if you ever need advice on maintenance or whether the $25k estimate for the roof is thievery, please ask.
Great to hear, hon. Hope it goes well. I recently moved back to Philly when my wife got a new gig. After 20 years in DC and, earlier, 15 in the East Village and Brooklyn, it feels surprisingly good to be back home. When I lived in Greenpoint in the 90s, the Poles ruled the streets, and I couldn’t call their collective style glam. But I know what you mean, the Manhattan sparkle rubbed off. Philly has come along way since I Iast lived here and there’s money around, but it’s still poor compared with DC. And the casual gun violence and walking wounded of the opiod crisis is all-too real. But I dig the daily glimpses of style more than the spotlight. At my age that’s enough.
"couldn’t call their collective style glam"
Ha ha well, they sure decked out when Poland played a big match! Face paint and beach towels were the order of the day.
Glad you like Philly. Seems general consensus is they got the realness too.
Buffalo has a bit of this vibe as well, but it's not as old or concentrated. But check to "ethnic," and 24-hour corner taverns catering to shift workers.
Loved this column. Assuming you found Ciroc! Looking forward to learning about Baltimore. To a great time in your new city!
Thanks Dom and yeah she's fine. Can't wait to see what she shits on next.
My cat shit in the middle of my bed once. He had tried to bring home a snake and got bit on the cheek, then developed an abscess. Surgery followed and I kept him inside until I was sure he had recovered. I was pretty sure after the bed incident
Wow, literally shit the bed? With all the metaphorical bed-shitting going in, good to know the metaphor has some basis in reality, although glad it's not my bed.
Yes, he knew who took care of him most of the time and figured out what would get him outside fastest. Felix was a great cat
Well, look at you with the fancy-schmancy U-Haul™ brand boxes! I marked my transition to middle class the first time I actually BOUGHT boxes for a move instead of hitting all the liquor stores in town. Now I feel like I'm being noble, leaving the free boxes for the college students who need 'em more.
I've moved on/up from cadging cardboard. Now I troll the liquor stores for the wooden boxes. Eventually my entire apartment will look and smell like a posh wine retailer, minus the wine.
What, you've never heard of dumpster-diving?! The only boxes I'd ever pay for are those wardrobe boxes. P.S. Bicycle boxes are good for large artworks or mirrors, and liquor boxes keep you from putting making your book boxes too heavy.
The liquor store box thing was easier when 1.) people were nicer and 2.) I had, like, fifty pounds of possessions not counting guitars and amps. (Actually I still come in under 500 lbs but the missus is a whooooole 'nother story.)
As someone living in an apartment cluttered with stuff but whose entire worldly possessions are down to a change of clothes and a nail clipper, I can relate to that "whooooole 'nother story."
The last time I did the liquor store box thing, we had more than a hundred. My wife and I seem to be locked in some kind of contest, "Whoever dies with the most books wins."
Does one of you self-publish? 'Cause that would not be fair.
I'm still living out of boxes to some extent; I'm still working on getting bookshelves and 90% of my stuff is in the garage in quarantine so's I don't bring any lil' friends with me from the old place. But I can now put my clothes away in a chest of drawers and hang shirts in my closets, and I finally have a damn CHAIR I can sit in and relax with my feet up, and I should have a fucking table in the kitchen soon that I can eat dinner on like a damn human. And the street is lined with trees and I'm within walking distance of my favorite part of the city, with bookstores and boutiques and restaurants. I don't hate coming home from work. "Ah, my iron lung's working again!"
Once again, if you have a Venmo or GoFundMe or whatever, I would send you a housewarming present. You too, Roy, ya bastid! :-)
I thought you saw my GoFundMe on here the other day.
https://gofund.me/b94db7ae
And send some spondulix to Roy, as well.
I somehow missed it. Thanks for reposting!
Thank you for the contribution!
Give Ubu mine please.
Aw, maaaan, you guys! You mean there's nothing special for Ciroc that you'd buy?
I’ve been to Balmer a couple of times. I had a love interest there (I was crazy about her but she only liked me, but liked me enough to give me hope) who showed me around the city. (She also took me to Bertha’s Mussels, somewhere outside of Baltimore — yum yum!) Went to an Orioles game at the old stadium (Memorial, I think it was called, the one before the one at Camden Yards), from which I remember 3 things: Eddie Murray’s 8th inning home run that won the game for the O’s (after the crowd chanted “Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!” before each pitch; the San Diego Chicken mascot was subbing as the Orioles’ mascot, and he (she?) gleefully tore apart an effigy of a Mariner player, the Os’ opponents that day; and in the section next
to ours, someone was wearing a Mariners cap and when he was walking to the aisle to get snacks or use the can someone who noticed the enemy insignia stood up and pointed at the fellow and started another chant of “ugly hat! ugly hat!” (apparently people there are big on impromptu chants!). The “victim” took that in good humor and was laughing through it all, as it was obvious that the hometeam fans weren’t expressing malice or hostility — unlike some other more glamorous MLB cities’ fans, like NYC or (shudder, Boston) might have.
I think this may comport with Roy’s assessment of Baltimoreans. I hope you enjoy your stay there, Roy, however long that is.