Construction Maison

"You walk without a sense of purpose," a Berkeley bar manager once told James "Peaches" Lucas before firing him. A dedicated climber who spent 15 years living out of caves, tents, and then a Saturn station wagon to pursue the sport, Lucas stumbles through life but marches to the boulders, crags, and walls. Peaches Preaches is his monthly column. Photos from the author's dirtbag days, circa 2004.  "You ain't no dirtbag, home boi," a Seattle climber wrote me in a direct message on Instagram. "You talk as though you are because you have been doing it since 2001. You are not a dirtbag; you have Instagram, for crying out loud!" The unsolicited slander caused me to reflect on the dirtbag experience and my role in promoting it. In the past decade, the climbing community has grasped onto the idea that being a dirtbag—that being deliberately impoverished in order to scrap and save every last penny to go climbing—is “cool.” The Seattle climbe...

Burlington College " class="size-large wp-image-202803" /> Burlington College was sold at auction July 12. B URLINGTON — A judge granted a “deficiency judgment” order against Burlington College this month, saying the school still owes People’s United Bank almost $730,000 on a loan for a controversial land purchase . The order by Chittenden Superior Court Judge Robert Mello entitles People ’s to $728,944.01 along with 12 percent annual interest until the debt is paid in full, plus any collection costs and attorney fees. The problem is that Burlington College no longer exists, according to the former chair of its board of trustees, and the school has no assets after auctions of its furniture, fixtures and, most recently, its remaining property. “You got me,” said Yves Bradley, the former chair, when asked why People’s might seek such an order. “I’m done. No more, that’s it. There’s no more board, there’s no more Burlington College ,” Bradley said. “At this point Peo...

Lee B. Lok (center) at his store, Quong Yuen Shing & Co, on Mott Street, New York, c. 1917. Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection One day in 1941, Lee Ng Shee went for a stroll in Bradley Beach , New Jersey. She was the wife of a prominent merchant in New York City Chinatown named Lee B. Lok, who in 1891 had established Quong Yuen Shing & Company, a general store on Mott Street. The family liked to spend their summers on the Jersey Shore, though it was a challenge to find landlords who would rent to nonwhites. Lee Ng Shee was passing a house on Newark Avenue, stepping carefully on her bound feet, when a woman came out on the porch. “Are you looking for a house?” the woman called out. “Would you like to buy this one?” Lee knew a deal when she heard one. “Two thousand dollars later, Lee B. Lok and family were ensconced in a summer bungalow of their very own in the village where twenty years before they would have been lucky to be able to rent some rooms over a store,” ...

August 26, 2017 Chip and Joanna love fixing up houses, and even offer a popular rental house | HGTV.com You may not be a celebrity, but you can live like one. The rich and famous love selling (and renting) luxury real estate almost as much as they like buying it. Provided you have the money, you can move into a home where the glitterati once slept. You might even be able to score a relative bargain in the process. Celebrities sometimes have trouble unloading their over-the-top homes, research by Redfin has found. The real estate website looked at 60 homes celebrities bought and sold, and compared them to similar homes that weren’t purchased by famous faces. The stars’s homes not only took longer to sell, but they also tended to sell at a discount. It wasn’t unusual for celebrity home s to sell for $1 million or more under the original asking price. ")}; Sometimes a celebrity’s home takes a while to sell because of unique design features or amenities that don’t appeal to al...

Aug 16, 2017 The first time Captain Noorullah Aminyar traveled to the United States, in 2012, he felt calm and peaceful in a way he never had before. Back home in Afghanistan, he had slept fully clothed , boots on, hand on his rifle. The Taliban attacked every night, and he had to be ready. "But when I come to America," he told me, "I have no stress in America. I sleep good. I tell you, I have no stress. It was really easy. It was a good thing. You feel safe. I was born in the war. I grew up in the war. Always, your life is in danger. You find a little safe time, for sure you'll be happy." Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below For Aminyar, then twenty-eight, coming to America was an honor and an achievement. He attended the prestigious Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, the culmination of more than a decade of studying English, followed by a basic infantry officer 's course at Fort Benning, Georgia, with Ame...