Buying the New Yorker 1996 - page 41

All of the ads on this page fall into the category of "Homes & Estates." I'm not sure why they need to delegate a page for this every other issue as we've seen that there is already quite a lot of ads like this.

For example, here's more from Kiawah Island. We just saw them a page ago. Bless their hearts. Here they are from the satellite. Heaven's, there's a lot of golfing to be done.

The website for the "London Flats" and "Cotswold Cottages" didn't look too promising, and sure enough, it brings up a 404 error. So I tried just the domain, ditell.com. It's now part of the Overstock.com travel network, and is a conduit for info about Park City, Utah. Time and the internet will eventually sweep all clean.

Bonnie Bachman seems to still be in the realty game, but as the industry is a slippery one, I can't quite find my way to a site that is definitely hers. Meanwhile, Google seems absolutely convinced that the person I am trying to find information on is Tal Bachman (His website is down at the moment but continue on to his message board so you can talk about "all things Tal"). So in addition to looking around all sorts of half-active realty sites for places that I don't want to live in, I have that blasted "She's So High Above Me" song wedged in my head.

When I found my way to the Vacances Provancales Vacations site, I saw that it has a tab for "barging." My first reaction was that they mean as in "barging into someone's house and taking it over as a vacation rental." No, they mean those seven day river cruises. Just picture yourself in a boat on a river. (I say that only as an attempt to get the last song out of my head. It didn't work.)

The Farnum & Christ Page has weekly flat lets starting at £700 ($1,288 by my reckoning). Not too much of an increase in ten years. Until you notice that the $1,014 price in the 1996 ad included airfare. Which would have been an astonishingly good deal. Unless the ad means that the $1.014 is the deal they can get you on airfare when you let a flat from them. If I might venture an opinion, I would have to say that the phrase "English Charm with American Standards" seems to me more of a compromise than an aspirational goal, but then I also think that "Farnum & Christ" sounds like a perfect name for a most excellent circus.

Fearrington, North Carolina was originally a farm. Now it is being done up as a "relaxed country community." In other words, retirement. Of course, they want to downplay the "we're just a bunch of old people" angle by saying that they are "full of . . .Fascinating people of all ages." Bonus!: They have recently acquired "a wonderful herd of Belted Tennessee Fainting Goats. . . . Named for their muscular condition known as 'myotonic,' the fainting goats do not truly 'faint' but stiffen when startled."