I’m not feeling overly creative this morning but this is worth a good laugh. The story comes around once in awhile in via email so its origin is unknown. Either its really creative fiction nonfiction at its best:
A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply.
(Actual reply from FHA):
“Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803.
Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.”
Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:
(Actual response):
“Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain . The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus ’s expedition. Now the Pope, as I’m sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our damn loan?”
We decided that having the 2010 Winter Olympic so close it would be a shame not to make the trip north. Sure, our hotel room would probably costs a quarter of what it does today but even if we don’t get to an event (ticket off in our future), the atmosphere is great. Watching the USA Hockey beat Canada (5-3) on the flat screens in the lobby of the Pan Pacific Hotel just blocks from the Olympic Cauldron almost justifies the trip by itself. Google says it is just over a five hour drive to Vancouver, BC from Portland. We were in Seattle in under three hours where we met the usual downtown traffic even mid-Sunday. With toddler-stops and lunch, it took just over seven hours in North Vancouver. The wait at the border might have been 90 seconds.
Portland: 90 minutes to the beach and mountains, three hours to Seattle, five to Vancouver and so much to do in between. What will you do with your day off?
This is a pretty cool fund-raising concept: the Pink Glove Dance. The email I received from my aunt, a nurse in Toronto:
Emily (MacInnes) Somers created, directed and choreographed this in Portland last week for her Medline glove division as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This was all her idea to help promote their new pink gloves. I don’t know how she got so many employees, doctors and patients to participate, but it started to really catch on and they all had a lot of fun doing it.
When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community. Please check it out. It’s an easy and great way to donate to a wonderful cause, and who hasn’t been touched by breast cancer?
The video was shot locally at St. Vincent Hospital.
Here’s a reminder that The Oregon Remodelers Association’s 34th annual Home Improvement Show auction event will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon and southwest Washington is at 5:00PM this Thursday, September 24th, the first day of the show. Like the rest of the show, is at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland (not the Expo Center). Tickets prices, which include admission to the show all four days, are now 2 for 1.
Guests can enjoy the show, visit exhibits and bid on tremendous packages that will be auctioned off, while enjoying food and wine from local restaurants and wineries. 100% of the proceeds from the live and silent auctions will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon. [check out the website for a list of silent and live auction items].
Wristbands for the event will be pre-sold for $55 per pair and will also allow entrance to the show throughout the entire weekend. 70% from each wristband sold will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon.
The Home Improvement Show’s hours are:
Thursday, September 24th 2:00pm-8:00pm
Friday, September 25th 11:00am-8:00pm
Saturday, September 26th 10:00am-8:00pm
Sunday, September 27th 10:00am-6:00pm
The Oregon Remodelers Association’s 34th annual Home Improvement Show auction event will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon (and southwest Washington). The event is at 5:00PM on Thursday, September 24th, the first day of the show, like the rest of the show, is at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland (not the Expo Center).
Guests can enjoy the show, visit exhibits and bid on tremendous packages that will be auctioned off, while enjoying food and wine from local restaurants and wineries. 100% of the proceeds from the live and silent auctions will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon.
Wristbands for the event will be pre-sold for $55 and will also allow entrance to the show throughout the entire weekend. 70% from each wristband sold will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon.
The Home Improvement Show’s hours are:
Thursday, September 24th 2:00pm-8:00pm
Friday, September 25th 11:00am-8:00pm
Saturday, September 26th 10:00am-8:00pm
Sunday, September 27th 10:00am-6:00pm
This Saturday is the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon Jr. Board’s Summer Wishes event at Motocorsa in northwest Portland. I am a member of the Junior Board. The format is a repeat of last year’s event with a fashion show featuring local designers and a silent auction. Online ticket sales ($35) go through noon on Friday and then tickets can be bought at the door for the Saturday 7PM event ($50). Take a look at the Summer Wishes website for more information about the event or the Oregon chapter of the Make-A-Wish-Foundation site to see how your participation helps grant wishes in the Oregon and SW Washington area. Please join us for an evening of fashion, food, and fun while raising money to support local wishes.
Screwed up yesterday. Could have been fined. Long story short: don’t touch a Portland street tree without a permit. We hired an arborist to clean up, not cut down, the street trees that haven’t been maintained in years at NW Hoyt (PGE cuts the portion in the wires but nothing else). Ironically, the stop work order came as I was at the Bureau of Development Services getting our building permit (issued and approved). I’m meeting with Urban Forestry (who issue tree permits) on Monday to discuss the street trees. City code has provissions for fining and/or jailing both the property owner and the contractor hired! Ignorance may not be bliss (or an excuse)!
Thanks to everyone that participated. It took only 10 days to reach 1 million clicks and for Make-A-Wish to receive $5000 donations from us and Kaiser.
Today is the K103 Radiothon for Make-A-Wish. We’ll be on the air at 1:30 as part of the kick off for A Million Clicks for Make-A-Wish. Make-A-Million for Make-A-Wish started out as a drive to raise 1,000,000 pennies for the Foundation. That’s $10,000 and the average wish cost is up over $7,000. This is the first year of A Million Clicks for Make-A-Wish and we are one of the ifive sponsors. Now it is up to you to help hit the goal of 1 million clicks on the special Make-A-Wish logo on the K103 website in the next month. When the goal is met, we will write our $5,000.00 check to Make-A-Wish along with the four other sponsors for a total of $25,000. It’s us, not Prudential Northwest Properties as a whole, that are the sponsors.
We proudly support the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon with our charitable dollars. Charles is a member of the Junior Board for the Oregon chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We also support Transitional Youth and other local charities.
Read more.
