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Let’s TRY THE TRICKLE DOWN APPROACH

The media is making noise again about how the mini house will save the day and eliminate the homeless folks. They even went so far as to show a rendering of several such tiny house on a large lot on a nice flat area. Someone doesn't understand the process of any kind of housing as the site cost and lot can be even more than the cost of the little house.  Think about it, a tiny house for one person will pay the same amount for the sewer hook-ups and rates as a large family in a large house. Not my idea).This may sound like some Socialistic concept but let’s face facts. In a Communist regime, the government would own it. ; What would you call our Social Security system? Our Medicare System?  Susidized housing? Food Stamps?, Schools?  Etc.  The same thing goes for the rest of the utilities to a lesser degree (Power, Water, Gas, Cable, etc.). Someone better add in the costs of the streets, storm drains, sidewalks,water & sewer. etc. as you don't think the authorities will be able to just put in dirt roads do you? How about the cost of the actual land? Someone owns it at first , don’t they?

     Maybe we should approach the problem from a different direction, like from the earning capacity of an individual.  Let’s see how far $15 an hour gets us.

 $15x 10days = 150 a day x 6 days = 900 A WEEK.  

X 4= 3600 a month,

 X 12= $43,200 A YEAR.

   That would be OK if no taxes were taken out & no Health ins. and   Day care was free.      Consider 1/3rd of that($1200/Month) for rent .

Maya Codex

BOOK REVIEW

MAYA by Diego de Landa  Account of the Affairs of Yucatan in the mid-1500’s. (Warning;  This padre is a poor writer and is very boring! But it’s all pretty interesting.)

                Translation by A. R. Pagden in 1976

Diego de Landa, The Catholic missionary who served in Yucatan in the 1500’s was largely responsible for the destruction of most of the breakable or flammable Maya artifacts, but at the same time, he wrote about the culture of the original Mexicans, which gives us a are view of the every  day life of the people and their practices while at the same time he describes the terrible treatment by the Spaniards trying to overlay their religion on a culture they considered inferior to theirs.  You can actually get a grasp of their Codex, kind of a herrogliphics like Egyptian , but very different.

                                                               

Toshiro MafuniMYAMOTO  MUSASHI   by Euji Yoshifawa

Toshiro Mafuni

   The story of Japans’ greatest swordsman, he was renown for his prowess probably due the movie , (1956) starring Toshiro Mafune, the perfect fit for such an enigma.  To while away his time while in prison for three yrears, Mushashi  studued painitng and poetry to balance his brutal strength This is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. Subtle and imaginative, it is teeming with memorable characters,, many of them historical. It transmit a clear picture of the way of the Samuari, interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, and absolute dedication to the ‘way of the Samurai,’ it depicts a world We westerners know only vaguely, full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal.

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ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCOO NEST    by Ken Kesey

   Americans (USA) don’t generally like reading stories about the Hero who dies or is killed at the end , bur Kesey is not of that genre. You’ve probably all seen the move, featuring Nicholson and the awsome ‘Nurse Ratched’ but there is so much more going on in everyones head (especially ‘Chief’s ,the supposedly deaf & dumb Indian with the mop & bucket) . Kesey’s description of MacMurty  is writing at it’s best. Kesey had gained a lot of insight due to his having worked in a nut-house in Oregon, and it shows.

                         

FALL FASHIONS

Hangmans' Bolo

   My initial offering for my FALL Collection is my version of the Bolo tie. As I believe we have gone overboard , wearing expensive,  idiotic ties., my first is a miniature version of a hanging noose.   Of  course, I would like to use a better quality rope and maybe a couple of silver end pieces, this model will have to do as my introduction to the world of fashion.   Stay tuned for my summer shirt with the ¾ sleeves, soon to be revealed.

FROM TOM WOLF

   “I went to see the the  Beatles….And I heard 20,0000 girls screaming together…. And I couldn’t hear what they were screaming, either…. But you don’t have to …They’re screaming Me !  Me !  Me !... I’m Me !... And that’s why wars get fought….”

                             

HUGO GROTIUS

  While in the medieval town of Delft in the Netherlands, we wondered who the statue was in front of the huge church (The ‘New’ church was built in the 13^th century.) The name of Hugo Grotius didn’t mean much to us until we asked a lawyer friend when we returned to the US. It seems he was an international figure even in the 16^th century as Holland was always at war with someone and he wrote volumes regarding International High Seas Navigation and use. Grotius notion of the freedom of the seas would persist until mid-20^th century, and continues to be applied even to this day for much of the high seas, though the application of the concept and the scope of it’s reach is changing.  He was jailed for his writings on Church theory but escaped in a

trunk to France where he was welcomed.  He is probably more famous for his trunk escape than his writings.

Modular moveable plant

Plant all packed

                                                

FARM HOUSING

 since everyone is caught up talking about mini-housing, modular-housing and farm housing  I

Thought I'd unwrap a thirty year old study of housing farm workers that I did for a corporation that was not able to get the concept off the drawing boards. By that time, I had designed and initiated at least two modular plants that actually constructed housing units. 

  The concept was that a modular plant capable of building a minimum of 25 units cold be designed to be portable on just a few trucks and set up near an area that needed farm housing, for permanent homes. The units would be of the same design and would be financed by large growers. And not just seasonal housing. Each grower might need two or so units for his operation , primarily for his managers and family. You would have to go to my seasonal workers housing consisting of wood platforms with theft structures or seasonal workers, such as harvesters for your crop.   I won the contract due to my actual experience with building modular 3D  (three Dimensional) units, even selling  one company to Ford Motor Co.. My mobile p[lant took inspiration from circus workers clever packing of their various components and materials on trucks and trailers. My plant was based on about four trailers that unfolded into various aspects of the plant line, it's and even the entire covered structure, including fencing. Semi-skilled workers would be sourced from local labor markets, where skilled foremen would be an integral part of the package.

3 bedroom, one bath

  There is a lot of exposure about 'Modular Housing' these days, but if you dig deeper into it all, you will notice most of it is for million dollar homes and although it does save a few months of construction time, it may cost more than conventional housing. 

3 BR, 1 B, for family c. 1980

MINI--HOUSING (OR TINY HOMES)

  Also there is a lot of noise about Mini-housing, but certainly not much done about it. We Americans (North America) have an aversion to living in  small, multi-story housing, unlike the Europeans, who can rent you a well designed unit for an amount you can afford.

  Here in the USA we order why so many families can't afford even older rental units and I believe it's due to the fact we  haven’t looked at the problem from the upper end, in other words, How much does a family have to earn in order to pay for a minimum place to. Live?

  In other words, "Let's take it from the top" .

  Let's begin with how much we can earn, starting with the magic $15 an hour.

If I work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, I can make $720 a week.( Let's not take anything out of his check right now). That's $2,880 a month. Let's say 1/2 goes to rent or $1440 a month. Maybe that works for you in the Deep South, but you cannot even  get a studio here for that in the Western market area. That may work for a single person, but add a couple of kids into the equation, it doesn’t' look good. But what if there was free kid care ? Then the parent could actually make it, but the care  center would have to consider maybe opening earlier and closing later.

HAVE I MENTIONED ?

That a guy named Garoppolo is paid about $30 million each year? He’s a football or baseball player!  And he’s playing a game all us kids played in junior High school!  Do you think a good teacher earns that much in the USA? Just kidding!

GRAFFITI
 On a lighter side, the Eropeans have a great sense of humor, adding a few notes to their One-Way signs.