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captainsblogI just passed along a snarky comment about my former days in the Peoples Republic of Ithaca, in response to Eleanor referencing buying some old-school whole milk from down yonder at Farmers & Artisans. A Googling brought me to this entry, from a blog titled Ithaca is Doomed, which makes fun of the relatively few McMansions that sprouted down around Cayuga's waters in recent years, compared to their proliferation in other parts of the country:
Where I used to live, though, Northern Virginia, I watched the gradual invasion of McMansions from the late 80’s to the heights of the real estate bubble. It was a gradual phenomenon at first, as one neighbor would buy a piece of prime country land, land that used to be a dairy farm or corn field, and build a garish monstrosity. Soon, neighbors were trying to outdo one another in a game of détente. Once the developers caught on to the trend, you might drive by a forest during your morning commute, and on the way home, it would be there—the access road and the ridiculous sign for “Bumfuck Egypt Estates Farms” or some pseudo English horseshit like “Kensington Manor.” In a week, what used to be viable farm land or forest would be chock a block with Chinese drywalled McMansions, their granite countertops leaking out their radioactive isotopes into the American dream addled brains of their inhabitants, the ones who’d paid for them with “interest only loans.”
This description immediately reminded me of the most garish local example of the phenomenon. It's a few miles northeast of here, where the English affectation he describes is butted right up against its Italian cousin:
Yup. Pygmalion meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Where I used to live, though, Northern Virginia, I watched the gradual invasion of McMansions from the late 80’s to the heights of the real estate bubble. It was a gradual phenomenon at first, as one neighbor would buy a piece of prime country land, land that used to be a dairy farm or corn field, and build a garish monstrosity. Soon, neighbors were trying to outdo one another in a game of détente. Once the developers caught on to the trend, you might drive by a forest during your morning commute, and on the way home, it would be there—the access road and the ridiculous sign for “Bumfuck Egypt Estates Farms” or some pseudo English horseshit like “Kensington Manor.” In a week, what used to be viable farm land or forest would be chock a block with Chinese drywalled McMansions, their granite countertops leaking out their radioactive isotopes into the American dream addled brains of their inhabitants, the ones who’d paid for them with “interest only loans.”
This description immediately reminded me of the most garish local example of the phenomenon. It's a few miles northeast of here, where the English affectation he describes is butted right up against its Italian cousin:
Yup. Pygmalion meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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Date: 2011-03-14 12:39 am (UTC)I am amused at Australia's mixing of Aboriginal names and English... so you get Jamestown or something next to Wagga Wagga.
ETA: Also - this? Made me giggle.
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Date: 2011-03-14 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-15 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 10:53 am (UTC)