tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post8901517100754854092..comments2013-02-11T20:01:58.555-08:00Comments on comments on life: The Tardis in the library, part oneUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-53657218851547117802011-10-11T14:44:31.586-07:002011-10-11T14:44:31.586-07:00I really should use those paper time machines much...I really should use those paper time machines much more, but a couple weeks ago I turned on the Glass Teat Time Machine and watched a Cary Grant comedy from 1948 called "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Home". It had a lot of jokes that are still relevant today about how contractors nickel-and-dime young couples during the house buying process. But I noticed a few odd things:<br />1) Cary Grant is a mid-to-high level advertising executive on Madison Avenue, pulling down the kingly salary of $15,000 per year. That's _per year_.<br />2) This salary lets him afford a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan _plus_ a live-in black maidservant.<br />3) Cary Grant pays $10,000 for a 50-acre lot in Connecticut with a peach orchard. This lot is specified to be within an hour's commute of his New York job. His lawyer tells him he was ripped off: "You paid $200 per acre. I know that area of Connecticut, and the locals sell each other land at $40 per acre." <br />4) Cary Grant budgeted $10,000 for the construction of a 4-Bedroom, 4-bath house on two stories with a basement playroom.<br />5) Through all the mis-steps, comedic mistakes and travails, the house construction costs him the exorbitant sum of $36,000.<br />6) An honest drilling contractor returns him a refund of $12 which Cary Grant wasn't expecting, so Cary decides that the house building industry isn't a rip-off after all, and we have a happy ending.<br /><br />Wow. Just, wow.Thomas Daultonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17253366531662635642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-42261246905888726592011-10-08T19:55:19.420-07:002011-10-08T19:55:19.420-07:00Man, I really thought due to the title of this pos...Man, I really thought due to the title of this post that there was something Doctor Who related. But the idea of books as "time travel" is quite intriguing. I don't read much historical fiction, but I do wonder what "travelers" from the future will think of our fiction today.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-4730147033214164182011-10-07T05:51:50.952-07:002011-10-07T05:51:50.952-07:00Okay, if those men didn't date or have girlfri...Okay, if those men didn't date or have girlfriends that makes it a little different. And I know men who mostly socialize with other men, but those are men whose interests aren't shared by a lot of women (geeks). The feminine interests do make the situation a little strange.kisekileiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17967070182847617840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-60478304838073262502011-10-05T06:37:30.117-07:002011-10-05T06:37:30.117-07:00kisekileia: Benson (and others) were writing about...kisekileia: Benson (and others) were writing about a class that doesn't really exist today -- but these were men in their late 20s to mid 30s who were extremely well-off by the standards of their time and who didn't date, have girl friends or socialize much with women. They didn't live together out of economic straits but because if they pooled their resources they could live in greater luxury.<br /><br />One collects butterflies and the other miniature china pieces. Neither takes part in sport. Today, if this was a movie, they would be shown as effeminate and affected.<br /><br />They are wealthy. Not as wealthy as they would like to be but extremely wealthy compared to the population around them. They can afford live-in servants and when they are having their house wired for electricity they stay for a month at a very, very nice hotel. <br /><br />Interestingly Benson did write (as did others at the time) about men (and women) who would probably today self-identify as gender-queer but strangely enough given our presumptions about the way people were 100 years ago the upper class in England was far more accepting of rather "interesting" self-identifications than many people are today.<br /><br />And men were allowed to live together for decades on end, have social relations only with other men and yet have no interests which were accepted at the time as "manly" without anyone presuming there was an emotional relationship between the men involved other than mutual narcissism.mmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16987853519962545747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-62014087956034281002011-10-05T06:22:48.119-07:002011-10-05T06:22:48.119-07:00Maybe this is something that's different among...Maybe this is something that's different among 20- and 30-somethings in cities with high rent than it is among people your age where you live, but I wouldn't suspect a gay relationship if two men were living together as housemates with separate bedrooms. In fact, my boyfriend has a male flatmate and I've never found it suspicious in the slightest. Among my peers in Toronto and even in Hamilton (where housing is very cheap in much of the city), it is very common for people to live with housemates in order to save money and have some companionship. <br /><br />I'd say more of the people I know who aren't in very long-term romantic relationships live with housemates than live alone, actually, and I even know couples who share living space with friends. You just get more living space for the money if you split the cost of a two-bedroom apartment or a house with other people--the only reasons I don't are my allergies and my lack of local female friends.kisekileiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17967070182847617840noreply@blogger.com