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Trees have always fascinated me. These are in a part of Central Park very near my apartment.
I often wonder how they got to look they way they do, but they’re not talking.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968), Strength to Love, 1963

1. Overall, do you feel like you’re in better financial shape now than you were five years ago, worse shape, or roughly the same shape?

Roughly the same shape.

2. Of the debts you currently owe, what percentage of them would you say are unnecessary debts that were caused by not watching your money closely enough?

I’d probably owe about 20 percent less if I had taken a day to think about certain purchases.

These days I don’t carry my credit cards around with me.

3. Are you worried about the economy’s effect on your job?

N/A

4. Take the quiz: What’s Your Money Personality?

Healthy – I’ve learned a little something over the years – there’s still a ways to go.

5. Should the government bail out the struggling banks, or should the government divide the money they’re going to give the banks among taxpayers as a one-time “shot in the arm” for America’s workers?

Bail the banks. The recent tax incentives did not boost the business of any the retailers in my area.

6. If a rich stranger were to hand you a check in an amount equal to a year’s salary, would that amount take care of all of your debt, make you feel financially stress-free, both or neither?

I would be totally debt-free with a bit to jingle in my pocket.

Visit Patrick’s Place

Q1 – Special: In addition to standard menu items, many restaurants offer one or more specials of the day. If your waiter or waitress describes an appealing special but neglects to mention its price, would you order it without asking about the cost?

That would depend on the type of special and the restaurant.  Most of the restaurants I frequent have entrees that don’t top 30 dollars.  If I were on the Upper East Side or in the Tribeca/SoHo area are I would definitely ask the price.  A hamburger and fries can easily be twenty dollars plus in those areas.

Q2 – : Earlier this year, pictures showing the Enawene Nawe tribe of Amazon indians aiming weapons at an airplane overhead made headlines across the United States. The photos, according to the producers of ABC’s Nightline television show, inspired them to travel deep into the Amazon to meet the Enawene Nawe, a tribe that reportedly has never before been filmed for television. Do you think there is something inherently wrong with outsiders interacting with or filming never before seen indigenous tribes, or does studying their way of life outweigh any potential negative side effects caused by such actions?

I think we have much more to gain from interaction than they do.  I hate when the media turns these things into a sideshow.

Q3 – Housing: In describing the recent financial crisis here in the U.S., President Bush said: “Easy credit — combined with the faulty assumption that home values would continue to rise — led to excesses and bad decisions. Many mortgage lenders approved loans for borrowers without carefully examining their ability to pay. Many borrowers took out loans larger than they could afford, assuming that they could sell or refinance their homes at a higher price later on. Optimism about housing values also led to a boom in home construction. Eventually the number of new houses exceeded the number of people willing to buy them. And with supply exceeding demand, housing prices fell. And this created a problem: Borrowers with adjustable rate mortgages who had been planning to sell or refinance their homes at a higher price were stuck with homes worth less than expected — along with mortgage payments they could not afford. As a result, many mortgage holders began to default.” Do you believe homeownership is a privilege or a right?

I’m a life-long New Yorker and renter.  We live in a small rent-controlled apartment.  The expense and responsibilty of home ownership has never appealed to me. 

i understand why others would want to own a home.  If you’re paying market value in New York you are throwing thousands of dollars away every year.  The tax benefits and equity of owning a home in town or in the ‘burbs is quite appealing.

I wouldn’t say home ownership is a right, but I would say that the government should work towards making housing affordable for all income levels.

Q4 – Television: What is your current favorite television show — one that you make a point of watching during its regularly scheduled time as often as humanly possible?

I love my Frasier reruns.  Call me the Syndication Queen – I am rarely home during prime time.

More Four for Fridays

The e-tickets are printed up and zipped into my bag’s secret pocket.

Back up copies stashed in a safe place just in case.

Where’s she going?

To New York’s Scariest Haunted House of course.

I went for the first time ever last year on the first of November.

And it was amazing!

It was devastating to find out the rest of the run was sold out. 

That’s not happening this year.

These are camera phone pics from last year.

That’s what one of my closest friends called my blog.

“Just an online diary”

That was followed by “and why do you refuse to put advertising on it? Other people make money off those things.”

The word things was said with a hint of disdain.

I answered “making money off of things is not always important.”

Their answer – a lock of such shock that you would have thought I had stripped naked, painted myself blue, and run down the main drag.

What say you?

– moblogged from a table at Starbucks where I sit recovering

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