The Off Topic Topic

[Agelastus]

Once again I'm reminded of the urgent need to expropriate the rich before they're allowed to design any more interiors
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/Great-Neck-NY-11024/31065180_zpid/

That appears to be The Fountains.

On sale since at least 2015 (when The Guardian says the asking price was $100 million.) Built in 1928, last purchased in 2013, previously the residence of a Russian billionaire who died in 2014.

While there were three pages of sites (or more, I stoped at three) offering it for sale I couldn't find out when it was last refurbished.

Allegedly, though, the 2013 buyers paid less than $16 million for it.

I am afraid I must correct you...

https://www.thefriedmanteam.com/three-bridges

The Fountains -

https://www.priceypads.com/the-fountains-1920s-great-neck-estate-reduced-to-70m-photos/

https://propertylistings.ft.com/homes/3313247/%7Blocation%7D/%7Bproperty%7D

The Three Bridges -

https://www.bohemiarealtygroup.com/real-estate/great-neck-ny-11024/3334739/112745314

https://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-84086-n6pgc6/the-three-bridges-great-neck-ny-11024

Note some of the pictures are not just the same thing from different angles, but actually identical.

[The links are just selections - both searches brought up pages of results for the property under each name.]

The Guardian from 2015 uses "The Fountains"; the Long Island Press from 5 days ago uses "The Three Bridges" so you are probably right as they should know. On the other hand the Long Island Press doesn't seem to realise that its been on sale for at least six years; I suspect the realtor's changed at least once in that time, possibly the name too?

[celedhring]

Yeah I wonder if there are just far more "routine" emergencies in airports than we'd like to know.

I've definitely landed and there are fire engines waiting - which I have chosen to assume is perfectly normal and probs just for training

When I wrote a script several years ago with lots of airport scenes I did research on the inner workings of airports. To the point, when any craft that's about to land reports any kind of issue, an emergency is triggered and firefighters are deployed. Given the sheer amount of planes that land in a biggish airport, those happen pretty often, even if they rarely end up in tragedy.

[Josquius]

Currently in schlipol Airport waiting for my connecting flight back to the UK.
Bloody hell. I don't know how much of this is brexit and how much covid but...

First normal passport control with an ominous stamp. Expect articles about people with full passports being turned back once travel comes back to normal.
Then go to another man tl get passport checked. Go to a desk to get corona papers checked and a sticker. Go to another man and get passport checked and a old school stamp (it's like a Japanese hanko) on the sticker. Thennnn they tell you real gate to go to. At which point its passports and boarding pass checked again.
Luckily its really quiet this time on a Sunday night. Can only imagine the hell at a busier time.

[Tonitrus]

I just came back to the UK from 'Merica...I got a more thorough check of my documents (passport/COVID test/UK entry locator docs) from the United gate podium at Dulles than I did at Heathrow Passport Control (which was just the automated scan-your-passport/photo your face machine).

[Sheilbh]

Another path not taken 1860s designs for the Royal Courts of Justice - sadly the budget didn't stretch to gothic skyscrapers:

[grumbler]

Another path not taken 1860s designs for the Royal Courts of Justice - sadly the budget didn't stretch to gothic skyscrapers:

That's fortunate, because the technology of the 1860s didn't support the safe construction of such buildings, either.  Before the 1880s, strong enough steel was not available to make the frame bear the load, rather than the walls.  Gothic skyscrapers would have been destroyed by fairly modest winds.

In 1868, the Equitable Life Building in New York was started, as the then-tallest building the technology of the time supported:  130 feet.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah not literal skyscrapers

It was Alfred Waterhouse's entry. He designed the Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall - which both have a few gothic spikes so that seemed to be his thing. It more looks that way because of how low most of the buildings on the Thames - or at that point around the Strand they're 4-5 storeys but half of that is from the Thames embankment to the street and then the rest above street level.

Here's a more technical drawing but because the rest of the city was so low - those few towers would have such an impact. It is very Victorian

[Josquius]

It is rather nice.

[Tamas]

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/aug/09/journey-to-albania-search-europes-muslim-heritage


A wonderful article. Marvelling at the lost glory of "indigenous" European Muslim culture, blaming white-privilege colonisers for discarding Albania as backward instead of recognising its past Muslim glory.

You can barely see such thickly layered irony.

The guy writes about ignoring history and writing about a place based on home-grown ignorant prejudices, and how bad that is. Which is of course exactly what he does.

[Threviel]

Why did you take the car in the first place? The result was presumably obvious before you went shopping?

I did not have a choice, the alternative was to wait for a bus turning up every half an hour, riding it for 15 minutes, then somehow loading a trunkload of shopping on my person, waiting up to half an hour to the bus back, then walking. Overall I still spent far less time circling the block.

Go another day? Go another time? Buy a cargo bike? Buy a moped? Ride a bus? Walk? Eat take-out? Go to a restaurant? Order wares with delivery? There's probably dozen's and dozen's of options rather than taking the car at a bad moment.

[The Brain]

Why concern yourself with downstairs matters in the first place? Let them do their job.

[Sheilbh]

Go another day? Go another time? Buy a cargo bike? Buy a moped? Ride a bus? Walk? Eat take-out? Go to a restaurant? Order wares with delivery? There's probably dozen's and dozen's of options rather than taking the car at a bad moment.

Also love that what I think most people would see as a positive sign of local community is what's annoyed Tamas

[Tamas]

Why did you take the car in the first place? The result was presumably obvious before you went shopping?

I did not have a choice, the alternative was to wait for a bus turning up every half an hour, riding it for 15 minutes, then somehow loading a trunkload of shopping on my person, waiting up to half an hour to the bus back, then walking. Overall I still spent far less time circling the block.

Go another day? Go another time? Buy a cargo bike? Buy a moped? Ride a bus? Walk? Eat take-out? Go to a restaurant? Order wares with delivery? There's probably dozen's and dozen's of options rather than taking the car at a bad moment.

Really? How is any of that worth it just because I might not have a space to park when I get back.

[Tamas]

Go another day? Go another time? Buy a cargo bike? Buy a moped? Ride a bus? Walk? Eat take-out? Go to a restaurant? Order wares with delivery? There's probably dozen's and dozen's of options rather than taking the car at a bad moment.

Also love that what I think most people would see as a positive sign of local community is what's annoyed Tamas

I am sorry but the so called local community signs I saw then was a Jag SUV taking the spot I left 20 minutes prior, and then a pretty new Land Cruiser driven by an overaged Karen refusing to do any sort of movement to solve the impasse of trying to pass each other.

If we are into finding alternative solutions, I think these people taking a bloody taxi would had been far easier and relatively affordable than me buying a new vehicle on the spot to avoid relinquishing my parking place, as Threviel suggested.

[garbon]

Why did the weekly shopping have to happen right then? And why are we discussing what appears to have been a fleeting annoyance?