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This page includes posts from
November 1-30, 2007 in the usual reverse
order.
Each posting on the home page is perma-linked to these archive pages.
November
28, 2007 Earlier this fall my wife and I really enjoyed a new independent film, Once, when it played at the Art House Theater. Here's a link to a video clip, featuring a wonderful duet by the two leads, Glen Hansard of The Frames and Markéta Irglová. I'm now happy to note that the DVD is set for release on December 18, just in time for Christmas. It's on my list. It should be on yours.
November
27, 2007 The Old Landing residential subdivision is one of the oldest developments outside of the formal limits of Rehoboth Beach. The 50-lot layout sits on a beautiful spit of land. About one-fourth of the lots front directly on Rehoboth Bay. For most of the rest of the development, a lagoon acts as the backyard divider. The lagoon leads out to Love Creek and then Rehoboth Bay, as shown in this photo:
Nearly every one of these houses has its own dock, either on the Bay or in the lagoon. As one might imagine, they now sell in the low seven figures, given their highly valued location. On the other hand, keeping to the formalities concerning subdivision governance apparently wasn’t considered to be nearly as valuable. When first created in 1955, the deeds for the lots in Old Landing included some routine property restrictions, largely limited to building design and use of the premises. The restrictions also set up a governance committee, similar to today’s home owner associations, but with limited powers to keep vacant lots in good condition if the owners didn’t, and so forth. These restrictions were to stay in place for 50 years and then expire. However, the deeds also provided for amendments and extensions, under defined conditions:
In 1984, the Old Landing Association was incorporated and recorded in the Secretary of State’s Office. The stated intent was to replace the old governance committee. Lot owners in Old Landing automatically became members, and were to be subject to assessments for common area maintenance and other routine costs. To enforce the assessments, the Association was empowered to file liens on defaulting property owners. When the Association tried to assert this authority on the owners of one lot, however, the owners filed suit to block it. Among other allegations, they noted that the original 50 years had come and gone, and as they argued, the Association never properly acquired the authority to enforce any such liens against them. In a recent decision by Chancery Court Master Kim Ayvazian, she agreed with the lot owners. As it turned out, the voting to create the Association and replace the old governance committee was not at all what was contemplated in the original deeds:
In any event, the original restrictions did not provide the powers now claimed by the new Association:
Thus endeth the enforcement efforts. If the decision becomes final, it will raise other interesting issues, such as whether the Association has any remaining validity for lot owners who bought their property after the 1984 incorporation. This result certainly affects those who bought in Old Landing before the Association came into existence, but it’s not so clear that the newer owners are exempted from the terms of the 1984 arrangement. Nonetheless, the decision is a good object lesson about the need to read the fine print in property deeds and the restrictive covenants contained within them. Not keeping to the formalities can certainly produce some surprising results.
November
25, 2007 I will always respect my elders, even those who aren't elder by very much at all.
November
25, 2007 Good friends of my parents once lived in Seaford, Delaware, and in the early and mid-1960s the seven of us would visit them each year. Whenever we went, we would see tall TV antenna towers adjacent to most of the homes in the downstate community. With cable TV not yet invented, or at least not much of a presence at that point, and with TV reception pretty marginal at 50 miles or more from a broadcast station, putting up the equivalent of a telephone pole outside the home, or sticking a tall tower on top of the house, was about the only way folks who lived downstate could provide decent viewing options for themselves. It wasn’t an issue for us where we lived, because we lived close enough to the Philadelphia stations. For the lower two-thirds of Delaware, however, these high-rising TV poles were once pretty ubiquitous. The influx of cable television serving most of the state eventually put a huge dent in TV antenna sales, as well as the thirty-foot or taller poles on which they were placed. You can still see them in some of the more remote spots in Sussex and Kent Counties. A news story in this week’s Cape Gazette, bolstered by a personal look-see, reminded me of those old TV poles. Reporter Ron MacArthur wrote a short piece about one of the first residential windmills to be installed in a residential subdivision in Sussex County:
As previously reported by MacArthur, earlier this month NextGen Energy Inc., an alternative energy company with offices in Sussex County, obtained special permits from the County Board of Adjustment for these two towers:
I drove by the Rehoboth Shores windmill today, and was impressed by how modest it really is. The blades are not huge, not noisy, and frankly not at big deal, once you see the system in place. Here's what it looks like:
The old TV towers I first saw as a kid are the nearest visual equivalent, and nobody needed any special permits to put them up. I think that after a few more of these generators are in place, and folks become a bit more used to them, Sussex County Council won’t have too much difficulty amending its zoning code to eliminate the special permit rules now burdening the residential windmill installment process. Meanwhile, we’ll be waiting for those big electric-generating windmills to be approved and installed offshore.
Some of us have been interested in that idea for a long time.
November
24, 2007 I spent several hours today driving a few of my wife's relatives back to their homes in Pennsylvania. On the way back, I ran into a startling amount of holiday traffic, of the Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas varieties. Seeing all those people inspired me to watch Love Actually, yet again. I think this movie is becoming a new family tradition for us, especially between now and New Year's. Younger daughter and I discussed the fact that one of our favorite scenes is at the very start, showing people greeting each other at Heathrow's arrival gates. It's a wonderful little episode, and one I always enjoyed watching (and being a part of) during our own holiday excursions. For the four dozen folks in America who have not seen this movie, here's a well-written review of the DVD release.
November
23, 2007 The Bush Administration earned some rare praise from their friends at the New York Times today regarding the decision to open up an East Coast military air route to civilian commercial traffic for the Thanksgiving crush:
Naturally, the Times editorialist couldn't stop there:
This Thanksgiving break is certainly not the last word in the Federal government's air traffic congestion efforts. In fact, the FAA recently issued a Record of Decision on its nine-year project to alleviate congestion and related impacts on not only the three major New York area airports, but also Philadelphia International:
I've been studying this ROD for my work representing DelDOT. Once you slog past the aviation technospeak, it's pretty interesting. What's especially interesting from my perspective is the number of folks seeking to adjust or eliminate some of the congestion management decisions reflected in the FAA's Record of Decision. For a quick review of this part of the issue, check out this local website, devoted to the perceived problems associated with Philadelphia's airport. As one might easily imagine, these Federal efforts are now in court, with the FAA seeking to combine more than a dozen administrative appeals and have them heard in the DC Circuit. Meanwhile, other related activities are underway as part of the government's attempts to improve air traffic quality without unduly harming the folks living below the flight paths. Right now, for example, my clients are finishing up a three-way agreement with the government of New Castle County, Delaware and the Philadelphia Airport folks to install noise monitoring equipment in an appropriate spot in the north part of the county. With any luck, that agreement will be finalized in the next two weeks. In the meantime, it will also be intriguing to see if the NYT's current posture promoting improvements in air traffic congestion management will hold up against the volume of complaints from the folks who might appreciate their proximity to these major air facilities, but who are not so keen on the airports' downstream effects. UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!
November
22, 2007 Five years ago our family traveled north to Philadelphia, to the church where my wife grew up. It was Most Blessed Sacrament Parish’s centennial celebration, and the parish priests and parishioners had worked very hard to restore the old church to its former glory. The parochial school was the nation’s largest in the early 1960s, and the convent was filled with nuns assigned the task of teaching children with 90 to 100 in the room (That experience, which I shared at my own parochial school outside Wilmington, is perhaps among the reasons why debates over small class size never catch hold intellectually in our house). The celebration was beautiful, and MBS was packed with former and current parishioners. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. MBS closed its doors recently, a victim of mass emigration from Southwest Philadelphia. We’re sorry to see it go. However, it’s not as if the number of Catholics is in steep decline in America, with MBS's closing just one data point to prove it. In Sussex County, for example, the huge influx of immigrants from largely Catholic countries, as well as the area's growing appeal as a retirement haven, has significantly increased the parish populations. In New Castle County, new parishes have been created to handle the crush of new communicants. The Church is permanent, even if its churches are not.
November
18, 2007 Here are the links to the latest three golf columns, if you're interested:
I should have a new golf book review finished later this week, also. I'll be sure to let you know. In case you wondered what Baywood Greens looks like in the late fall, here's a sample. This is the 6th hole, set up on the day we played it as a 202-yard par 3.
November
17, 2007 This year’s Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, which ran from November 7-11, went very smoothly for its thousands of participants. They filled nearly three-quarters of the over 24,000 tickets available for the 150 screenings. It was just the right way to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the event. I worked primarily at the Box Office, but managed to fit in a few movies as my breaks in the days, which ran from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. or so. It was definitely a working vacation, but well worth it, as always. As in prior years, here are my mini-reviews of the films I saw, using the Festival’s rating categories of Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor. Diggers--It’s 1976, and some young Long Island clam diggers are struggling to keep to traditions in the face of significant challenges, both economic and familial. Very good. In the Shadow of the Moon--Wonderful documentary of the NASA moon program, featuring interviews with most of the astronauts and archival footage of the missions. A must-see for the big screen. Outstanding. The Ten--Erratic comedy featuring ten different sketches, each illustrating a biblical commandment. Some were well-done, others didn’t know how to finish, and others should not have begun. Good. Flawless--Great little heist story, starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore, set in early 1960s London. Proof once again that revenge is best served cold--very cold. Outstanding. Greetings from the Shore--If I were a teenage girl, I would love this charming little fairytale about a summer job, summer romance, and summer intrigue in a picturesque Jersey Shore resort. It’s a cotton candy kind of movie—not that there’s anything wrong with that. Very good. Potpourri Shorts
Kimauk Shorts (all from Spain's Basque region)
As
for others' reactions, the following movies won the Festival’s Audience
Awards:
Best Documentary:
Best Short:
Best Feature: In addition, here’s a link to a local television story about the Festival, and copied below is a portion of the local paper’s reaction to the event, in its November 13 editorial:
What they said.
November
5, 2007 Something like this was bound to happen, given the amount of money at stake, but it still makes me angry. The News-Journal reported tonight that an active investigation is underway, trying to figure out who at the Delaware Department of Finance is involved in a fraud scheme about escheat refunds:
I hope they catch the crook or crooks, and go after 'em big time. The State's in bad enough financial trouble as it is, without being bled from inside.
November
3, 2007 Yesterday marked the end of the pre-season for the upcoming Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, and it was a startling success. With about 150 screenings scheduled to run from Wednesday, November 7 through Sunday, November 11, Rehoboth Beach Film Society members took advantage of a prime member benefit and bought a lot of tickets over the last four weeks. Even with the brisk business, however, they created only 15 screening sell-outs, which are listed at the RBFS Festival website. This means that thousands of tickets remain available, so film buffs should continue to read through the Festival program and plot out their viewing options. It helps to be flexible about which films to see, because it’s a given that there will be more screening sell-outs when ticket sales resume. Many of the films are shown three times during the Festival, so that helps. In addition, on Saturday and Sunday there are two screenings set aside for Festival Favorites. Those selections will be announced once the Festival is underway, based on audience reactions to the first sets of screenings. On Wednesday afternoon beginning at 2:30 p.m., only tickets for that evening’s screenings will be sold. These 16 screenings are being called Locals Night, and we’re hoping that a lot of Cape Region folks come out that night to experience the event. Members can begin buying movie tickets for the rest of the Festival on Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m., if they are Associate Producers, Executive Producers, or Directors. Members in the Film Buff category can buy tickets for each day as it happens, and they have an hour’s lead over non-members, whose buying options are similarly structured. I’ve been working the Box Office for the last couple years, and it’s always a stirring sight when dozens of film buffs line up an hour before the doors open, eager to make their picks. The huge Festival tent will be put into place early next week, and the RBFS staff and volunteers will be busy with the other preparations for the event over the next few days. I’ll be working at the Festival at the Box Office again, but not before I prepare my usual batch of Oatmeal Raisin Movie Cookies. In addition, as in prior years I will post mini-reviews of the movies I'll be viewing. Hope to see you there.
November 2, 2007 I took this a while ago, and forgot that I wanted to post it here. It's a sunset over Rehoboth Bay, taken in late summer/early fall:
I especially like the five small puffs in a line.
November 1, 2007 John Leo, Glenn Reynolds, and Hube at Colossus of Rhodey took some hard shots at my undergraduate alma mater this week. The shots were deserved, I'm sorry to say. The residence life program at the University of Delaware, as described by FIRE and Leo, came across as a remarkably ham-handed approach to education. Characterizations of the program as Orwellian were probably too kind, in fact. I began searching my records to make sure I had not yet sent in my annual donation check to the University. If this indoctrination is typical of what current UD students are now routinely exposed to as official University policy, then there would be no useful purpose served by sending the school any of my money. Apparently a lot of other folks quickly made sure the University understood that distinct possibility--or perhaps the new University President, Patrick Harker, had the presence of mind to do something about this issue before hundreds if not thousands of alumni decided to vote with their wallets in response. He formally suspended the program, with only a slight nod toward the potentially ruffled feelings of those who've been pushing it:
That's very good news. Nonetheless, now that I know that stuff like this has been going on, I'll pay a lot closer attention to what's going on at the University. I bet a lot of other alumni will do the same, and also be a little less school-spirited with their donations as a result. Note: In case you wondered, I graduated in 1975 with a B.A., with Honors and Distinction. UPDATE: Thanks, Glenn, for the Instalanche! |
Contact Information: Fritz Schranck fschranck-at-sneakingsuspicions.com
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Official small print disclaimer: This is, after all, a personal web site. Any opinions or comments I express here are my own, and don't necessarily reflect the official position of my work as a government attorney or any of my clients. That fact may become obvious later on, but it needs to be said here anyway. © Frederick H. Schranck 2002-2007 |
