Posts Tagged ‘ foreclosures ’

Interesting Information : Compulsive Hoarding

Interesting Information : Compulsive Hoarding

Even though Elizabeth Nelson was raised in an upper-middle class suburb, she felt a deep sense of shame about her living conditions growing up. The spacious basement where she rode her Big Wheel at age 3 was filled to the brim by the time she was 8. As years went by, the homeâ’s empty spaces disappeared, replaced with clutter. She was so used to piles, it took Nelson years to realize her momâ’s compulsion to collect and save was a psychiatric condition. She recounts a visit to her parentsâ’ home as an adult. â’My dad was using portable urinals...

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Bloggers to the Rescue

Bloggers to the Rescue

Considering all the layoffs, downsizes and cutbacks reported in the news these days, it’s not surprising to learn that the news itself is being cut back. According to Joe Samuel Starnes, visiting assistant professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, “You don’t have to look far to see struggling businesses, but newspapers have been going down for a while because of the loss of advertising revenue and readership.” In response to the newspaper industry’s decline, he said, “It’s concerning because our democracy needs good journalism, and newspapers have supplied and supported a majority of our country’s high-quality reporting in...

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McMansions Are Just Too Tacky

McMansions Are Just Too Tacky

A new study provides a first glimpse of exactly what people find offensive about super-sized houses which have sprouted up in neighborhoods around the country. Researchers found that people particularly dislike when these large homes, often derisively called â’McMansions,â’ are more than two times as tall as surrounding homes, and when their architectural style is not compatible with the neighboring homes. The results can provide guidelines for communities that are struggling to regulate the construction of these super-sized houses in existing neighborhoods, said Jack Nasar, co-author of the study and professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State...

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Fast Food :: Pay For Frills

Fast Food :: Pay For Frills

The typical American consumer is accustomed to unwrapping a hamburger from their favorite fast food establishment and finding â’the worksâ’: lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and a few packets of ketchup on the side. However, according to John Stanton, Ph.D., chair of food marketing at Saint Josephâ’s University in Philadelphia, the â’frillsâ’ that come with fast food or restaurant meals could become a thing of the past. â’In an environment where food companies are reducing the size of packages and charging more for products, consumers can expect to pay for what they used to get for free.â’ This trend has become...

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Who is Our 1907 J P Morgan?

1907 the United States paniced over when the stock market fell. The economy was in recession and there were numerous runs on banks and trust companies. The panic’s primary cause was a retraction of loans by a number of financial institutions, Wall Street and banks that had loaned money for failing schemes. How did the United States survive?  It was all to one man . . . J P Morgan. What did he do? Morgan summoned the presidents of the city’s banks to his office. Morgan and his associates had examined the books of all financial institutions and decided, based...

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