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Comments:
YD - 2005-02-18 14:30:33 Nothing stuffed in foundation hole. Ignored till spring. Bag of Quik-Krete in garage has hole's name on it. Thin cracks delineating beams in the ceiling. Crack in living room storm--the one on the side. Front light blowing constantly, requiring constant conveyor belt of new bulbs. Dog-dug holes in garden beds. Spots on the carpet. Bathroom window paint peeling. Dead furnace. Former resident's residue of mysterious and sinister ancient boxes, never approached or touched, in far, lightless corners of filthy crawl space.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-18 15:11:32 Sorry to break the mood here, but Laura, did you see that Sumers released a transcript of his comments? He also released a letter accompanying them as well as a transcript of his address to the faculty on 2/15. His remarks were worse than the NYT article about it lead me to believe. http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html* * * * * * * * * * * * yd - 2005-02-18 15:13:34 Moldy vermiculite by the ton. Neighbors interloping autos in the driveway. Trapezoidal door frames abound. Pizza boxes tumbleweed their way down the street. Screams of the crazy mother in the night two blocks away. Flashing lights in the senior home parking lot. Drives away quietly.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:17:09 And tracks and traces everywhere from those around me. Mouse poop under the washing machine. Dead beetle on the windowsill. Grey string of cobweb way up in the corner. Bunny tracks lacing the backyard snow, headed for the spill of birdseed under the feeders. Also snow-printed: tiny mouse tracks revealing their door is the unused dryer vent. Skittery squirrel tracks. Feral neighborhood cat prints. * * * * * * * * * * * * LF - 2005-02-18 15:18:01 "Former resident's residue of mysterious and sinister ancient boxes, never approached or touched, in far, lightless corners of filthy crawl space." I Hate to get on the murder thread again, but that comment reminded me of the plastics exec who killed his girlfriend, stuffed her in a 55 gal. drum that he shoved in his crawlspace because it was to big and heavy for him to get rid of. The weird thing is, he sold the house and no one bothered to look in the drum in the crawl. Then the house was sold again and the new owners opened the barrel, to their dismay. The barrel had been in the crawl for 30 years at that point. So, what's in the boxes in your crawl?* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:28:34 Regrets. Mistakes. Errors. Missed chances. Self-revelations. Musings, ruminations, things forgotten. Maybe. I don't know, LF.* * * * * * * * * * * * Dan Arbor - 2005-02-18 15:32:25 Yeah, you might be the accidental owner of an old Tucker schematic, $5000 in small bills...or a mummified head. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:36:03 Boxes better imagined than explored, perhaps. Actually I think it's old Mason jars. But you never know.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-18 15:37:13 I can't BELIEVE you didn't rip open the boxes the minute you bought the house. I am totally intrigued by everything I've found (not much) that belonged to the previous owners.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:38:50 With 5,000 true-crime books under my belt, my imagination has a hair trigger and my tolerance for undisturbed mystery is high, very high.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:43:50 The things you've described as being in your house when you bought it are indeed all interesting and cool items full of history. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:46:25 (is realizing for the first time that the crotchety lone-wolf bachelor former resident likely had little interest in canning) (shudders).* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 15:48:45 YD: Moldy vermiculite? As insulation, may I ask? LF: I take it that one whole owner of the barrel-home never realized she was down there? (shudders again).* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-18 15:49:15 Funny the way different people respond differently to things -- I've read hundreds of true crime novels (my guilty pleasure), but that makes me *more* likely to want to find out about my house's sordid past. I love intrigue. Of course unopened boxes are probably more intriguing than opened ones.* * * * * * * * * * * * LF - 2005-02-18 16:03:52 vermiculite ore has been used as an insulation in the past but no longer because in a few instances it was found to contain asbestos* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 16:09:26 You are right, LF: that's why I asked; I was concerned. Vermiculite looms large in recent asbestos lawsuits. Of course, now that Bush has signed legislation that bumps class action lawsuits of more than 5 million dollars from state courts (elected judges) to federal courts (appointed judges) it's probably the last time we'll be troubled by pesky lawsuits like that.* * * * * * * * * * * * LF - 2005-02-18 16:39:36 Vermiculite also can contain two other minerals (their names escape me right now)that, because of their similar structure, also pose the same health risks that asbestos does (asbestosis, mesothelioma). Strangely enough, they never were classified in the same way as asbestos.* * * * * * * * * * * * Dan Arbor - 2005-02-18 16:52:33 I had some George Bush stuck on the bottom of my shoe today. I scraped it off...* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 19:35:37 I didn't know that, LF; interesting. As for me I stuck to the pink wool when I Insulated my attic [wearing a respirator nonetheless], a dicey job made pleasant by the fact that it rained those days and the whole roof above me was that sssssssssss sound of falling rain. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-18 21:04:01 Anna: I (finally) got around to reading your link, and it's eye-opening. He tosses off such unsubstantiated stereotypes as "Somehow little girls are all socialized towards nursing and little boys are socialized towards building bridges." News to me. You'd think someone in his position would know better than to say such things. Anyhow, thank you for giving the link.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-19 09:59:48 Sorry to stick it in this post, but I was pretty astounded. The argument about variance is totally wrong, BTW. Even if it were right, height is around 90% inherited, and intelligence is about 40% inherited, and that fact alone would shred his argument. I hope he loses his job. He must be scared of that if he gave into the pressure to retract his comments. Did you see the letter? It was pretty humble. I hope it doesn't work because it strikes me as someone who doesn't think he's wrong but realizes he can't get away with not admitting wrong-doing.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-19 10:30:09 It was fine to put it here--people were on a streak, though, so it got a bit buried for a moment, but anyways. I went back to look for the letter but didn't see it. But I imagine that anyone who rather sententiously distributes such platitudes as truth would not be easily moved from his beliefs.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-19 20:05:44 HIs letter can be found here: http://www.president.harvard.edu/* * * * * * * * * * * * win - 2005-10-08 14:36:54 You may find it interesting to check out the pages about betting ... Thanks!!!* * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |