Want a new house? Only $49,500,000!

What makes a house worth $49,500,000? --- the asking price for a property in SW Miami featured in a well-known realtor's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal today.
I took a peek at the web site and had a visual tour of the house inside and out. I don't know if what I saw is worth the asking price, and I don't plan on tapping my 401K to even visit - but it is mind-bending at this time to think someone has the faith in the American dream to ask this price and expect someone will come forward. Most likely a prospect will counter-offer and the price might drop a mil or two but forty-seven mil for a house? It does have a helluva view of the water!
By the way, more than 700 viewers had viewed the web site as of mid-morning!

John Wayne-May 26, 1907

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June 12, 1979 OBITUARY 'Duke,' an American Hero By RICHARD F. SHEPARD In more than 200 films made over 50 years, John Wayne (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0526.html) saddled up to become the greatest figure of one of America's greatest native art forms, the western. The movies he starred in rode the range from out-of-the-money sagebrush quickies to such classics as "Stagecoach" and "Red River." He won an Oscar as best actor for another western, "True Grit," in 1969. Yet some of the best films he made told stories far from the wilds of the West, such as "The Quiet Man" and "The Long Voyage Home." In the last decades of his career, Mr. Wayne became something of an American folk figure, hero to some, villain to others, for his outspoken views. He was politically a conservative and, although he scorned politics as a way of life for himself, he enthusiastically supported Richard M. Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Spiro T. Agnew, Ronald Reagan and others who, he felt, fought for his concept of Americanism and anti- Communism. But it was for millions of moviegoers who saw him only on the big screen that John Wayne really existed. He had not created the western with its clear-cut conflict between good and bad, right and wrong, but it was impossible to mention the word "western" without thinking of "the Duke," as he was called.

"...post-World War II"

Thursday, May 21, 2009: "Led by a rebound performance from left-hander Jon Lester, who limited the Jays to one run over 6 1/3 innings, the Sox completed a three-game sweep of Toronto with a 5-1 victory before the largest post-World War II crowd in Fenway history (38,347)."(John Brown, MLB.COM)

Spring comes to Franke

The mild winter is gone and the new spring season has descended all around the Lowcountry. An example of this is the beautiful entrance to Franke at Seaside in Mt. Pleasant, SC, a continuing care and retirement community where Mary and I now reside. Hope you enjoy the view. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

What happened to "love thy neighbor?"

I found it interesting that regular church goers in America are more likely to approve of state torture than those who go less regularly. This data came out in a Pew Research Center (see The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate) survey released April 30. White evangelical Protestants are most likely to tolerate torture. People who attend church at least once a week are also more inclined to support torture. White non-Hispanic Catholics and white mainline Protestants agreed torture is often or sometime justified. Are these good people focused on the harsh messages of the old testament and missing the message of the new testament about loving thy neighbor and doing unto others as you would be done unto?

Some say that information gathered under torture is not reliable: people under torture will tell you whatever you want to hear. Another thought about all this is the application of torture only works if the victim is convinced he or she will be killed unless they talk. When you have "guidelines" known to the world, friend and foe alike, that prohibit killing, then the victim need only be trained to hold out. That the victim may not be able to stand up indefinitely to torture is probably most true. The Gestapo proved this during World War II. Their prisoners were told that if captured they should try to hold out for at least 24 hours to give others the chance to get away. This is probably true to this day. But Bill Maher, HBO's resident political satirist, joked recently that one of the terrorists at Guantanamo had been water boarded so much he was showing up wearing a bathing suit, carrying a beach towel and a Danielle Steele novel under his arm.

Garden, ducks and the worm

Giamumusso Yard, Franke @Seaside. (Click photos to enlarge)

Canadian geese visit Franke @Seaside.


The worm turns.