[Plura-list] An Especially Cursed House

[Cory Doctorow]

Today's links

* An Especially Cursed House: Kate Wagner and the Fall of the House of
Colt's Neck.

* This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading

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🌻 An Especially Cursed House

The meat-and-potatoes of Kate Wagner's McMansion Hell is making
extraordinarily hilarious architectural criticism out of utterly
mediocre "luxury" homes. Anyone can find hilarity in a tacky
monstrosity, but finding the humor in unimaginative status-displays
takes real insight and skill.

That said.

When Wagner takes on an extraordinarily awful McMansion, it quickly
becomes apparent that her focus on workaday bougie ugliness is all about
the challenge - she plays boss-level because she's just TOO GOOD at the
easy stuff.

Which brings me to the latest installment of McMansion Hell: "An
Especially Cursed House": a $2.2m, 5,420 sqft 4 bed/4.5 bath house in
Colt’s Neck, NJ. The viral listing had attracted plenty of dunks, but
Wagner's treatment? ::chef's kiss::

https://mcmansionhell.com/post/635435396215521280/we-interrupt-this-broadcast-to-bring-you-an

The difference between an "eccentric collector" and a "hoarder" is
money. This was driven home when William Gibson hipped me to Soane's
Museum, a series of knocked-through Victorian houses filled with John
Soane's vast, indiscriminate collections.

https://www.soane.org/

The current owned of Especially Cursed House makes Soane look like a
piker, though. This is Madonna Inn-grade intensity, proof that nothing
exceeds like excess.

I confess I actually secretly quite like the spectacular
claustrophobic-Disneyland collection displays. For me, the horror didn't
really kick in until we got to the living space.

I mean.

Wow.

And the real horror (as ever) lurks in the basement. Come for the
"exercise room," stay for the art gallery.

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🌻 This day in history

#15yrsago Anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson loses right to practice law in
Alabama https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2005/11/5613-2/

#15yrsago Giving EU air-passenger data to US DHS is illegal
https://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1122/70024-eu/

#10yrsago German dog poo game for kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6nmHzPCTdw

#5yrsago Activist tricked into 6-year relationship with undercover cop
tells her
storyhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/20/lisa-jones-girlfriend-of-undercover-police-office-mark-kennedy-interview

#1yrago The Labour manifesto: transformation of the welfare system, fair
conditions for workers, universal housing, home care for elderly, fully
funded NHS, fair taxes for the rich
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/11/labour-party-manifesto-jeremy-corbyn/

#1yrago Lawyer’s long, weird sigfile setting out when and whether he’s
willing to talk on the phone goes viral
https://www.fitsnews.com/2019/10/30/is-this-the-worlds-most-self-important-email-signature/

#1yrago California’s housing bubble is spilling over into poor and
exurban neighborhoods, creating waves of crises
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/us/california-housing-crisis-rent.html

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🌻 Colophon

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Friday's progress: 515 words (86836 total).

Currently reading: The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 23)
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/11/16/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-23/

Upcoming appearances:

* Keynote, Cybersummit 2020, Nov 26 https://www.cybera.ca/cyber-summit-2020/

* Keynote, Cologne Futures, Nov 27 http://medienpolitik.eu/

* Beaverbrook Lecture: How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, Nov 30,
https://www.mcgill.ca/maxbellschool/channels/event/2020-beaverbrook-annual-lecture-part-ii-cory-doctorow-325538

* Teach-In Against Surveillance, Dec 1,
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/teach-in-against-surveillance-tickets-128926228821

* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/

Recent appearances:

* Talkingheadz Podcast:
https://talkingpointz.com/talkingheadz-with-cory-doctorow/

* Can Web 3 Help Democracy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oq15ZbHlmM

* Fully Charged: The future of energy over the next 300 years
https://fullycharged.show/podcasts/podcast-84-the-future-of-energy-over-the-next-300-years-cory-doctorow/

Latest book:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
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provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
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*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla* -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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