Is there a better way? Via Flickr's Abecedarium: NYC.
A reader at real estate blog BrickUnderground asks a question on the mind of so many of us who cart our dirty undies five flights of stairs and four blocks every week (well, at least once a month): why can’t i just install my own damn washer and dryer under my landlord’s nose? The expert’s answer is, like anything in New York, complicated. Short version: yes, you could do it, if your pipes can handle it, but if they can’t, you’ll likely be boned before the rinse cycle. And if you do install one, you probably won’t get evicted unless you cling to it Charlton-Heston style. She recommends a high-efficiency machine that uses less water so it’s less likely to overwhelm the plumbing. You might even win an exception from your landlord based on disability, which can include difficulty traveling to the laundromat or severe allergies, though “allergy to watching daytime Telenovelas” is probably not an acceptable reason.
Excuse our break from regular Brokelyn content as we say: Congrats on the New York Giants for crushing those Boston bros last night in the Super Bowl! Here’s a deep cut from the Giants back catalog:
Think about how far viral videos have come since then: before the internet, someone actually had to actively show this video to people on TV or something. Also, this vid is from 1986, the same year as the release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, who desecrated his own memory in a car ad last night. While the Giants lost in the ’86 playoffs, the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl, but ended up losing to the Bears, just like they lost last night. Also, Reeboks.
“The Giants fan is quite a man, women and children too/if you back another team, something’s wrong with you.”
Soon, the days when you could justify buying that big 2-liter bottle just marked “SODA” that was like $2 cheaper than Pepsi will be gone. Yes, even the lowly generic brands many of us rely on to squeak through under budget at the grocery store are getting pricier. Consumerist points us to this WSJ story that shows stores have caught on to us crafty consumers and are raising the prices of private-label goods: 5.3 percent on nonperishables and a huge 12 percent for perishables. Meanwhile, name-brand prices have only gone up 1.9 percent and 8 percent respectively. They still cost 29 percent more than the store-brand stuff on average, but the gap is closing in many areas: Target’s Archer Farms almonds cost 37 cents per ounce, a penny more than Planter’s version, for instance.
The nut (sorry) of the issue here is that you, the consumer, have become loyal to your Archer Farms, 365 Everyday Value or Key Food brand mustard, and the stores think you should pay for your loyalty. So tell us: do you have a favorite generic brand? And will rising prices make you go back to the big boys?
A humble little slice of the Catskills dream: 576 feet, 3 acres, $54,900.
This we did not know until we were turned on to the addictive new real estate blog Upstater, which has a weekly budget-friendly house roundup called Five-Figure Fridays, featuring rock-bottom Catskills properties. To be sure, not all are beauts, but there are some cute finds. In the latest FFF roundup, “at least three of them seemed inhabitable,” Upstater writes. “A couple of them could probably transform into something closer to adorable with a little love.” The favorite: a 576-foot cottage on three acres of land.
Brooklyn, we work hard. TOO hard, apparently, to get sumpin’ sumpin’ on the side. The Daily News this week looked at newly released Census data that seem to indicate all of us busy ass hustlers in the borough are too focused on paying rent to worry about getting your romantic life in order. The paper quoted experts who said Brooklyn’s socioeconomic diversity means these results are not surprising. “They are beginning their careers and postponing marriage,” CUNY sociologist Richard Alba told the News.“They tend to concentrate in the same neighborhoods,” which means Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick, the area that has the most balanced cluster of both single men and women. Hm, not really surprising. Editorial comment below.
Hello internet users! Because we know our Brokelyn Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter accounts weren’t enough, Brokelyn is now on Tumblr! Why should you follow us there? We’ve put together a list of five reasons.
1. Musings. Our Tumblr is team Brokelyn’s hyperactive sensory appendage on the cerebral cortex of our main blog. That means quotes, photos, reblogs and more things you won’t find on Brokelyn proper.
