|
|
|
|
Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
|
| |||||||||||
|
The Write Way 19 September 2003 The Golden Rules Greetings, Sorry to make you feel as if you were living a scene from The Lost Weekend last week when I sent the newsletter a day earlier than normal, but we were making our first visit to our son's new house. Remember I told you about the small acreage they were buying ... the one overlooking the dam ... far from the madding crowd etc etc? Well, that's not where they moved. He and his wife had paid a deposit and signed a contract for the (then) asking price for that place and thought (as you would) that it was a done deal. They heard nothing back from the seller or his agent and went on their merry way, planning the move in the mistaken belief that all was well. It wasn't until they thought they were due to pay the balance of the deposit that they contacted the agent to discover that despite shaking hands on the deal the owners hadn't signed the contract. It seems they were obviously very surprised that they found buyers so quickly and decided they'd like an additional $10,000 for the place ... Which brings us to Real Estate Golden Rule Number 1 - Get everything in writing. The did find another place - not on acreage this time, but on a big block in the town. It has great views towards the mountains, is just around the corner from a walking track and a parkway that follows a little creek as it meanders all the way into the centre of the town, and it was nearly half the price of the first one! You know how "they" say that moving house is a stressful experience? Let's just say that "they" know what they're on about. Our son teaches music in his spare time and one of his students is a chap who owns a small removalist business, so naturally, he did the right thing and asked this fellow to submit a quote to move their furniture and belongings. The quote was very reasonable, they shook hands on it and even though this fellow let them down a couple of times by not dropping packing boxes in when he said he would and not arriving to pack their good glassware as promised, they put it down to him being busy and didn't panic.
Moving day came, the removalist arrived five hours earlier than he said he would (and wasn't that fun!), complained about how much there was to move, then presented them with an account that was 50% more than the quote! Which brings us to Real Estate Golden Rule Number 2 - Get everything in writing! Despite the hassles, they're all settled in now (well, as settled as you can be after only two weeks in a new place) and we had a lovely weekend with them, helping put up brush-screen fences, planting a hedge of Photinia all down one side of the block and building a garden retaining wall. I'd love to have another story that illustrates the third Real Estate Golden Rule, which is: Get everything in writing, but at this stage I don't ... However just give us another couple of moves and I'm sure I'll find one. In the meantime, we're staying put, sitting on our deck and watching the sun go down. There's nothing quite like the aglow sky at this time of year. Hmmm ... I know you've spotted my misuse of that predicate adjective (and yes, it was pretty corny and clumsy, but hey ... at least it got your attention). "An adjective which is separated from the noun or pronoun it modifies by a verb is often referred to as a predicate adjective. The predicate adjectives in the following examples are underlined. The horse is black. The streets are long and narrow. It is large,
heavy and awkward. The following are
examples of adjectives with the prefix a which can be used only as
predicate adjectives, not as attributive adjectives. The prefix a was
formerly a preposition meaning on: So, I should have said, "There's nothing quite like the glowing sky at this time of year." Or, "The sky is aglow at this time of year." Last week's title, How Long Is a Piece of String?, reminded Jeff Klipa about Grace Murray Hopper who used foot-long lengths of telephone wire to illustrate to her students how in one billionth of second (a nanosecond), an electronic signal can travel almost twelve inches. Jeff sent in this link about Admiral Hopper: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213732,00.html "She is generally credited with developments that led to COBOL, the programming language for business applications on which the world's largest corporations ran for more than a generation. Hopper is also credited with applying the engineering term "bug" to computing when her team found a moth trapped in a relay of the Mark II computer. This particular "bug" was removed, taped to the log book, and now resides at the Smithsonian Institute. The term "bug" has since come to mean any error that is computer-related, especially a programming error." And I bet you've often wondered about the origin of that term! As a community service, I present the following examples of Real Estate Ad Speak ... CHARMING
- Tiny. Snow White might fit, but five of the dwarfs would have to find their
own place. See "Cute," "Enchanting" and "Good Starter
Home." This week's quiz: Some terms you may come across when buying or selling your next property: lien, contingency, novation, affidavit, amortisation, riparian, annuity, litigation, caveat emptor, reliction 1. the extinction of a debt, usually by means of a sinking fund 2. the gradual migration of a body of water that results in additional dry land being left behind 3. an event which may (or may not) happen in the future, a condition that must be fulfilled before a contract becomes firm and binding 4. a form of periodic payment, made to the recipient at consistent periodic intervals either for life or for a fixed period of time 5. legal action in pursuit or furtherance of a claim 6. a sworn statement setting out facts which the person states are true 7. a legal claim against property for moneys owed 8. the rights of an owner of land bordering a body of water to use or control the land to the high tide mark 9. maxim which applies to real estate transactions where the onus is on the purchasers to satisfy themselves as to the suitability and condition of the property they are considering for purchase 10.the substitution of a new person (or obligation) for one of the parties to an agreement, on consent of all people involved You have to love the Internet ... it just never ceases to amaze me. On Wednesday, I received an email from Lilas Bond, containing a wonderful little piece she thought Lavinia and I would relish. Before an hour had passed, I'd received the same item from Dave Wagner in California, from Jason Rodarmel and from my son here in Australia! If you've been off planet Earth these past couple of days and haven't seen it, here it is: Pweor of the
hmuan mnid. Last week's quiz: What can you remember of the Old Ways? Match up these crazy measurements with the bits they measure: fathom, hackle, balthazar, momme, schooner, demisemiquaver, faggot, rood, ell, perch 1. area that covers exactly 272.25 square feet or about 25.292 85 square meters -PERCH 2. a traditional unit of volume for firewood; 3 feet in length and 2 feet in circumference -FAGGOT 3. large tumbler or drinking glass holding about 400 millilitres or 13.5 U.S fluid ounces - SCHOONER 4. a traditional unit of area used to measure land; 40 square rods (or perches), which equals 1210 square yards, or 10 890 square feet -ROOD 5. a large wine bottle holding about 12 litres, 16 times the volume of a regular bottle -BALTHAZAR 6. a unit of relative time in music equal to 1/32 whole note or 1/64 -BREVE 7. a traditional unit of length used for measuring the lengths of nautical cables and chains, especially anchor chains -SHACKLE 8. traditional unit used to measure the "weight" (density per unit area) of silk -M0OMME 9. a traditional unit of distance equal to approximately 1.829 meters -FATHOM 10. a traditional unit of length used primarily for measuring cloth; exactly 1.143 meters -ELL A real estate agent who was being paid by the week approached his office manager and held up his last pay slip. 'This is two hundred dollars less than we agreed on,' he said. 'I know,' the manager said. 'But last week I overpaid you two hundred dollars, and you never complained.' 'Well, I don't mind an occasional mistake,' the agent answered, 'but when it gets to be a habit, I feel I have to call it to your attention.' I've had some people contact me after trying (unsuccessfully) to post a message to the map of the world. If you've encountered problems, please try again - it seems to get sulky at times, then it comes good: http://pub37.bravenet.com/guestmap/view.php?usernum=3170114826 If you received this newsletter from a friend and you'd like to have your very own copy delivered to you on Friday, just click here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and why not spread the word? Send your friends a copy and invite them to join our merry band - we number over 7,000 now. A Little Something Extra Here's an excellent resource for those times you need to settle an argument about grammar: http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramdex.html Word of the week: Moratorium (n) a temporary ban or halt to a specific activity This comes from the Latin (and you're surprised because ...?) moratorius, which means "delaying." Oxymoron of the week: honest agent Got a question about grammar, punctuation or any other language matter? Here's the place to go: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=3170114826 This is a Latin phrase you may hear while you're pretending you're not home next time a real estate agent knocks on your door to tell you about all the eager buyers waiting to buy your house ... Aliquisne domum est? (Is anyone home?) Regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Here's how: 1. Pay by PayPal:
2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form: http://www.write101.com/fund.htm (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart): http://www.write101.com/fund.htm To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the web site, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritingTips This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
|
Home
| Contact
| Order
| Site
Map |Subscribe
Copyright 200 |
