I first learned of Washington Mutual when our mortgage in Pittsburgh was sold to them in 2001 or so. We had originally signed with Cendant Mortgage (they had the best deal when we bought in 1999) and I remember some vague talk about the possibility of our mortgage being sold to another company. It didn’t …
Category Archives: Class
Surprise: Predatory Lending Hits the Poorest Hardest
I mostly read magazines in bed and I have an on-again off-again relationship with The Nation. However, I spent a couple nights mulling over this disturbing story about what the mortgage crisis is doing to the black middle class. Meanwhile, the papers here have been running congratulatory editorials because the conservatives finally got it together …
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Denounced by the Lawyer for Rush
Now that doesn’t happen every day. Yesterday I was part of a panel on sampling and copyright called “Cramping My Sampling” at the Pop and Policy Conference. The panel was set up for each person to give a 5-7 minute spiel and then the panelists talked with one another, after which the floor was opened …
Real Estate Saga: Part II
In late June of 2006, we met our first love in the Montreal real estate market — after Luc, our realtor, that is — 6629 St. Andre, Apartment 3, listing for a mere $370,000. It was the 3rd floor of a 3-story (+basement) industrial building that had been converted to 3 condos. The 3rd floor …
Real Estate Saga: Part I
In June of 2006, Carrie drove by a sign in our neighborhood that said “large loft for sale” (well, it probably said “A Vendre: Grande Loft” or somesuch) and had a phone number. She called the agent to inquire. It wasn’t very large by our midwestern standards. But the agent inquired — how big of …
I’m old
not really, but older. Awhile back, I posted that we bought a radio to listen to Radio Canada in order to hear more French. The thing is, it’s above our level right now and hard to understand. TV and movies would be better. Anyway, Thursday night as we cooked, Carrie flipped on the English CBC …
And now a few words on class, social class that is
I’ve always thought of some of what academics do as “playing at” being of a higher social class than we are. Major field-wide conferences [cough]NCA![/cough]are held at hotels so expensive that they decimate university travel budgets. Groups of academics routinely go out to meals at these events that they can’t really afford. Broke job candidates …
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