Wednesday, September 17
Diamond and Kashyap on the Recent Financial Upheavals
by
Estridge Group
on Wed 17 Sep 2008 02:31 PM EDT
Diamond and Kashyap on the Recent Financial Upheavals
By Steven D. Levitt
As an economist, I am supposed to have something intelligent to say about the current financial crisis. To be honest, however, I haven’t got the foggiest idea what this all means. So I did what I always do when something related to banking arises: I knocked on the doors of my colleagues Doug Diamond and Anil Kashyap, and asked them for the answers. What they told me was so interesting and insightful that I begged them to write their explanations down for a broader audience. They were kind enough to take the time to do so. In what follows, they discuss what has happened in the financial sector in the last few days, why it happened, and what it means for everyday people.
The F.A.Q.’s of Lehman and A.I.G.
By Douglas W. Diamond and Anil K. Kashyap
A Guest Post
For most of the last 20 years we have been studying banks, monetary policy, and financial crises. So for us the events of the last year have been especially fascinating.
The last 10 days have been the most remarkable period of government intervention into the financial system since the Great Depression. In talking with reporters and our noneconomist friends, we have been besieged with questions about several aspects of these events. Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions with our best answers.
1) What has happened that is so remarkable?
This episode started when the Treasury nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on September 8. Their combined assets are over $5 trillion. These firms help guarantee most of the mortgages in the United States. The Treasury only got authority from Congress to take this action in July, and in seeking the authority had insisted that no intervention would be needed.
The Treasury has replaced the management of both companies and will presumably oversee their operation. This decision marked an acknowledgment by the government that the mortgage market and the institutions to make it operate in the U.S. are broken.
On Monday, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history was made by Lehman Brothers. Lehman had over $600 billion in assets and 25,000 employees. (The largest previous filing was WorldCom, whose assets just prior to bankruptcy were just over $100 billion.)
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve made a bridge loan to A.I.G., the largest insurance company in the world; perhaps best known to most of the world as the shirt sponsor of Manchester United soccer club, A.I.G. has assets of over $1 trillion and over 100,000 employees worldwide. The Fed has the option to purchase up to 80 percent of the shares of A.I.G., is replacing A.I.G.’s management, and is nearly wiping out A.I.G.’s existing shareholders. A.I.G. is to be wound down by selling its assets over the next two years. (Don’t worry, Man U will be fine.) The Fed has never asserted its authority to intervene on this scale, in this form, or in a firm so far removed from its own supervisory authority.
2) Why did these things happen?
The common denominator in all three cases was the ability of the firms to secure financing. The reasons, though, differed in each case.
The Fannie and Freddie situation was a result of their unique roles in the economy. They had been set up to support the housing market. They helped guarantee mortgages (provided they met certain standards), and were able to fund these guarantees by issuing their own debt, which was in turn tacitly backed by the government. The government guarantees allowed Fannie and Freddie to take on far more debt than a normal company. In principle, they were also supposed to use the government guarantee to reduce the mortgage cost to the homeowners, but the Fed and others have argued that this hardly occurred. Instead, they appear to have used the funding advantage to rack up huge profits and squeeze the private sector out of the “conforming” mortgage market. Regardless, many firms and foreign governments considered the debt of Fannie and Freddie as a substitute for U.S. Treasury securities and snapped it up eagerly.
Fannie and Freddie were weakly supervised and strayed from the core mission. They began using their subsidized financing to buy mortgage-backed securities which were backed by pools of mortgages that did not meet their usual standards. Over the last year, it became clear that their thin capital was not enough to cover the losses on these subprime mortgages. The massive amount of diffusely held debt would have caused collapses everywhere if it was defaulted upon; so the Treasury announced that it would explicitly guarantee the debt.
But once the debt was guaranteed to be secure (and the government would wipe out shareholders if it carried through with the guarantee), no self-interested investor was willing to supply more equity to help buffer the losses. Hence, the Treasury ended up taking them over.
Lehman’s demise came when it could not even keep borrowing. Lehman was rolling over at least $100 billion a month to finance its investments in real estate, bonds, stocks, and financial assets. When it is hard for lenders to monitor their investments and borrowers can rapidly change the risk on their balance sheets, lenders opt for short-term lending. Compared to legal or other channels, their threat to refuse to roll over funding is the most effective option to keep the borrower in line.
This was especially relevant for Lehman, because as an investment bank, it could transform its risk characteristics very easily by using derivatives and by churning its trading portfolio. So for Lehman (and all investment banks), the short-term financing is not an accident; it is inevitable.
Why did the financing dry up? For months, short-sellers were convinced that Lehman’s real-estate losses were bigger than it had acknowledged. As more bad news about the real estate market emerged, including the losses at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, this view spread.
Lehman’s costs of borrowing rose and its share price fell. With an impending downgrade to its credit rating looming, legal restrictions were going to prevent certain firms from continuing to lend to Lehman. Other counterparties that might have been able to lend, even if Lehman’s credit rating was impaired, simply decided that the chance of default in the near future was too high, partly because they feared that future credit conditions would get even tighter and force Lehman and others to default at that time.
A.I.G. had to raise money because it had written $57 billion of insurance contracts whose payouts depended on the losses incurred on subprime real-estate related investments. While its core insurance businesses and other subsidiaries (such as its large aircraft-leasing operation) were doing fine, these contracts, called credit default swaps (C.D.S.’s), were hemorrhaging.
Furthermore, the possibility of further losses loomed if the housing market continued to deteriorate. The credit-rating agencies looking at the potential losses downgraded A.I.G.’s debt on Monday. With its lower credit ratings, A.I.G.’s insurance contracts required A.I.G. to demonstrate that it had collateral to service the contracts; estimates suggested that it needed roughly $15 billion in immediate collateral.
A second problem A.I.G. faced is that if it failed to post the collateral, it would be considered to have defaulted on the C.D.S.’s. Were A.I.G. to default on C.D.S.’s, some other A.I.G. contracts (tied to losses on other financial securities) contain clauses saying that its other contractual partners could insist on prepayment of their claims. These cross-default clauses are present so that resources from one part of the business do not get diverted to plug a hole in another part. A.I.G. had another $380 billion of these other insurance contracts outstanding. No private investors were willing to step into this situation and loan A.I.G. the money it needed to post the collateral.
In the scramble to make good on the C.D.S.’s, A.I.G.’s ability to service its own debt would come into question. A.I.G. had $160 billion in bonds that were held all over the world: nowhere near as widely as the Fannie and Freddie bonds, but still dispersed widely.
In addition, other large financial firms — including Pacific Investment Management Company (Pimco), the largest bond-investment fund in the world — had guaranteed A.I.G.’s bonds by writing C.D.S. contracts.
Given the huge size of the contracts and the number of parties intertwined, the Federal Reserve decided that a default by A.I.G. would wreak havoc on the financial system and cause contagious failures. There was an immediate need to get A.I.G. the collateral to honor its contracts, so the Fed loaned A.I.G. $85 billion.
3) Why did the Treasury and Fed let Lehman fail but rescue Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and A.I.G.?
We have already explained why Fannie, Freddie, and A.I.G. were supported. In March, Bear Stearns lost its access to credit in almost the same fashion as Lehman; yet Bear was rescued and Lehman was not.
Bear Stearns was bailed out for two reasons. One was that the Fed had very imperfect information about what was going on at Bear. The Fed was not Bear’s regulator, the amount of publicly available information was limited, and its staff was not versed in all of the ways in which Bear might have been connected to other parts of the financial system.
The second problem was that Bear’s counterparties in many transactions were not prepared for the sudden demise of Bear. A Bear bankruptcy might have triggered a wave of forced selling of collateral that Bear would have given its counterparties. Given the potential chaos that would have resulted from Bear Stearns filing for bankruptcy, the Fed had little choice but to engineer a rescue. In doing so, the Fed argued that the rescue was a rare, perhaps once-in-a-generation, event.
When Bear was rescued, the Fed created a new lending facility to help provide bridge financing to other investment banks. The new lending arrangement was proposed precisely because there were concerns that Lehman and other banks were at risk for a Bear-like run. Since March, the Fed had also studied what to do if this were to happen again; it concluded that if it modified its lending facility slightly, it could withstand a bankruptcy; it made these changes to the lending facility on Sunday night.
Once the Fed had made these changes and determined that it and the others in the market had an understanding of the indirect or “collateral damage” effects of a bankruptcy, it could rely on the protections of the bankruptcy code to stop the run on Lehman, and to sell its operating assets separately from its toxic mortgage-backed assets.
Against this backdrop, if the government had rescued Lehman, it would have repudiated the claim that the Bear rescue was extraordinary; it would have also conceded that in the six months since Bear failed, neither the new facility that it set up nor the other steps to make markets more robust were reliable. Essentially, the Fed and the Treasury would have been admitting that they had lied or were incompetent in stabilizing the financial system — or both.
It was not surprising that they drew the line at helping Lehman. Based on all the publicly available information, this was clearly the right thing to do.
4) I do not work at Lehman or A.I.G. and do not own much stock; why should I care?
The concern for the man on Main Street is not the bankruptcy of Lehman, per se. Rather, it is the collective inability of major financial institutions to find funding.
As their own funding dries up, the remaining financial firms will be much more cautious in extending credit to normal firms and individuals. So even for people whose own circumstances have not much changed, the cost of the credit is going to rise. For an individual or business that falls behind on payments or needs an increase in short-term credit because of the slowing economy, credit will be much harder to obtain than in recent years.
This is going to slow growth. We have not seen this much stress in the financial system since the Great Depression, so we do not have any recent history to rely upon in quantifying the magnitude of the slowdown. A recent educated guess by Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs suggests that G.D.P. growth will be just about 2 percentage points lower in 2008 and 2009. But as he explains, extrapolations of this sort are highly uncertain.
5) What does it mean for the Fed and Treasury going ahead?
A reasonable reading of the recent bailouts suggests a simple rule: if a firm is on the verge of collapse and its ties to the financial system will lead to a cascade of chaos, the firm will be saved. A bankruptcy will be permitted only if the failure can be contained.
Assuming the level of chaos is sufficiently high, this dichotomy is probably consistent with the mandate of the Federal Reserve. The rescue of A.I.G., however, raises some major challenges.
One is where to draw the line. A.I.G. was an insurance company, not a bank or a broker dealer, so the Fed had no special relationship with A.I.G. Presumably, if a very large airline or automaker had been involved in the C.D.S. market, the same reasoning that led to the rescue would apply.
A second challenge comes with defining the acceptable level of chaos. We will never be able to find out what would have happened if A.I.G. had been allowed to fail. Furthermore, there are some reasons to believe that even if A.I.G. continues to operate, the fundamental stress in the financial system will remain. If the rescue does not mark a turning point, the bailout may be viewed quite differently down the road.
Should the government intervene if it merely postpones an inevitable adjustment? Creditor runs can make adjustment too fast; blanket bailouts can make adjustment too slow. Has the Fed found the speed that is just right?
Third, now that A.I.G. has been lent to, how will regulation have to be adjusted? Surely the Fed cannot be called upon to provide backstop financing whenever a large member of the financial system runs into trouble. How does it prevent a replay of this scenario, and can it be done without stifling innovation?
6) What does this mean for the markets going ahead?
Letting Lehman go means that the remaining large financial services firms now must understand that they need to manage their own risks more carefully. This includes both securing adequate funding and being prudent about which counterparties to rely upon. Both of these developments are welcome.
If the remaining investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, do not get more secure funding in place, they may be acquired or subject to a run too. In the current environment, relying almost exclusively on short-term debt is hazardous, even if a firm or bank has nothing wrong with it.
7) When will the turmoil end?
The inability to secure short-term funding fundamentally comes from having insufficient capital. There are many indicators that the largest financial institutions are collectively short of capital.
One signal is that there were apparently only two bidders for Lehman, when the ongoing value from operating most of the bank was surely far above the $3.60 share price from Friday. Another is the elevated cost of borrowing that banks are charging each other. A third indicator is the reluctance to take on certain types of risk, such as jumbo mortgages, so that the cost of this type of borrowing is unusually high.
The fear of being the next Lehman ought to convince many of the large institutions that, despite however much they already raised, more is needed. It may be expensive to attract more equity financing, but the choice may be bankruptcy or sale. The decision by the Federal Reserve to not cut interest rates suggests the Fed also recognizes that the short-term interest rate is a very inefficient way to address this problem.
Wednesday, September 10
THe Highway to Market Recovery is Well Mapped
by
Estridge Group
on Wed 10 Sep 2008 02:47 PM EDT
The highway to market recovery is well mapped
Residential markets will follow same road, but at different speeds.
Anyone who has ever driven a car knows what it feels like to be lost, men included, even if they won’t admit it. People are feeling that same sense of panic today because they are finding themselves in unfamiliar economic territory. The surroundings look different to them because the changing real estate market is leading them down a road that most have never traveled. A handful of people vaguely remember being on this road before, but so long ago that even they have a worried look on their face.
Relax, there is no reason to be worried or panicked because there is a difference between being lost and not knowing where you are. You can only be lost if there is no one around to give you a roadmap or directions. We don’t have that problem because there are plenty of helpful folks willing to give their opinion as to how to get back on the highway to recovery. In fact, there are too many helpful hands (and opinions) pointing and giving all kinds of different directions. Meanwhile, we sit idling, hoping we have enough fuel in our tank to make it to better days.
All real estate bubble markets and submarkets will follow the same road to recovery. However, not all markets will recover at the same speed. Real estate bubble markets are formed because there is an extended period of irrational growth. Irrational growth is defined as a growth rate that is not supported by the buyers who will actually use the property. It is important to remember that investors can fuel a market, but it takes users to sustain it.
Our market’s binge buying spree, which was driven by heavy investor participation, happened in 2004 and the first half of 2005. Prices were driven up to foolish levels, which caused confidence to erode to a point that the market started reversing its direction during the second half of ’05. At that point, irrational growth was replaced with irrational decline. This road needs no definition because we have been on this path for three years, and everyone is screaming to the driver “Are we there yet?!” Greed was driving the irrational growth market, now it is fear’s turn behind the wheel. Fear drives too slow for my taste.
Ironically, everyone wants to know when the market is going to recover. That’s like asking when a broken leg is going to heal. Technically, the leg begins to heal right after the trauma happens. However, the break will heal faster if the bone is set properly, but the setting process can add pain to an already painful event.
Likewise, our market began healing as soon as the bubble burst, and we experienced the trauma of watching prices plummet, back toward the real value line. The healing process has been slow, but it could have been accelerated if sellers would have endured the additional pain of setting their prices correctly a year or two ago. As it stands, we are beginning the fourth year of recovery, and the condo market is still in traction. The single-family market’s recovery has progressed much faster, as some submarkets are actually getting around in a walking cast.
Full recovery cannot happen until buyer confidence returns. However, the buyers’ confidence will not return until prices fall below the real value line. It’s as if the buyers are going to penalize sellers for getting greedy back in ’04. Buyers must feel confident that what they are buying represents a real value, a tall order in a market where perceived value changes as often as gas prices.
A few submarkets, such as closeout inventory from developers, bank-owned property and some of the short sales, are already below the real value line. In fact, it is safe to say that if you can buy anything for less than its replacement cost, that product is below the real value line, which means it’s fairly close to meeting the buyer confidence point.
In addition, geographic submarkets, such as Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Springs are closer to reaching the bottom of the curve than others because they do not have as much excess inventory. Therefore, their price reductions will not be as severe, and they will see confidence enter the market well ahead of the oversupplied markets of Northwest Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.
There is only one road to recovery, and like the Autobahn, there is no speed limit. All market segments will fully recover, eventually. But if you are a seller and are tired at moving at the same pace as your market segment, then speed up. All you have to do is drive your price down a little faster and you will find a buyer much sooner. After all, you now know that the buyers are located south of real value, near where confidence enters the recovery highway.
Keep the Faith
Denny Grimes is a local real estate agent and is president of Denny Grimes & Company. He can be reached at 239-689-7600 or denny@dennygrimes.com.
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Sunday, September 7
Waiving the Inspection, Not the Risk
by
Estridge Group
on Sun 07 Sep 2008 11:11 PM EDT
Waiving the Inspection, Not the Risk
Post-Settlement Surprises Range From Minor Quirks to Huge Problems
By Mara Lee
Special to ... more »
Saturday, August 30
30-Year Rates Dip Again, to 6.40 Percent
by
Estridge Group
on Sat 30 Aug 2008 09:40 PM EDT
30-Year Rates Dip Again, to 6.40 Percent
Associated Press
Saturday, August 30, 2008; Page F07
Rates on 30-year mortgages fell for the second straight week, declining to the lowest level in more than a month.
Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage-finance company, reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 6.40 percent this week, down from 6.47 percent last week. The new rate was the lowest since the week of July 17 when 30-year mortgages stood at 6.26 percent.
The 30-year mortgage has been above 6 percent since late May, reflecting the view of financial markets that rising inflation pressures will keep the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates further even though the economy is weak.
The housing market continues to struggle to emerge from its worst slump in decades. Reports this week showed that sales of existing homes, the largest part of the market, and new homes managed to post small increases in July although activity still remains far below the level of last summer.
Frank E. Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said one hopeful sign was that the pace of home price declines has slowed in recent months.
"There are also signs more buyers may be getting ready to return to the market," he said, noting that the Conference Board's latest survey showed that the number of households planning to buy a home within six months has now risen to its highest level since March.
The Freddie Mac survey showed that other mortgage rates were mixed this week.
Rates on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, fell to 5.93 percent from 6 percent last week.
Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 6.03 percent this week, up slightly from 5.99 percent.
Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages also edged up, to 5.33 percent from 5.29 percent.
The mortgage rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for 30-year mortgages, 15-year mortgages and five-year mortgages averaged 0.6 point. One-year mortgages carried an average fee of 0.7 point.
Saturday, July 26
Successful Sellers Know How to Think Like Buyers
by
Estridge Group
on Sat 26 Jul 2008 01:10 PM EDT
Successful Sellers Know How to Think Like Buyers
By Ilyce R. Glink with Samuel J. Tamkin
I recently spent some time listening to friends who are thinking about moving across the country and buying a house.
They told me that even though there is a seemingly endless list of houses for sale, not all home sellers are making the most of the house they're trying to unload.
When it comes to putting your house up for sale, the big problem for most homeowners is thinking like a seller. Most homeowners think that the house that they lived in, and loved, is the house they're trying to sell.
In fact, if your house is for sale, you'll have better luck selling it if you think first like a buyer and then like a seller.
It's clear to me that the cable channels HGTV, Bravo and Discovery have changed the way home buyers think. They want something that has character, is in good shape and is move-in-ready. Shows such as HGTV's "Designed to Sell" have convinced buyers that all homes for sale should -- at the very least -- have a fresh paint job, matching stuff and personality.
If your house is for sale and you haven't repainted in the past 10 years and don't have matching knickknacks on your coffee table, it could look dated compared with the competition.
But that's just the beginning. If a house is for sale and it doesn't meet the needs of today's buyers, no matter what price range, you're going to have a hard time selling it.
I recently visited a house that's been for sale for more than six months. It has the decorating thing down pat, right down to the two blue boys' rooms and one pink girl's room, but I instantly knew why it hadn't sold: The sellers had made a strategic mistake when they renovated the first floor. The kitchen, dining room and family room have big windows that face the lovely back yard and pool. But the order of the rooms is the kitchen on the left, huge dining room in the middle and family room on the right. The family room, which is more casual, leads to a much more dressed-up formal living room.
When the owners redecorated, what they should have done was create one massive kitchen/family room, incorporating the kitchen and dining rooms. The family room should have been the dining room, and the owners should have pulled up the ceramic tile and replaced it with hardwood floors to give the rooms a better flow.
No big deal, right? Someone buys the house for a steep discount and makes the change. Well, that's ideally how it should work, but buyers today don't want to take on big improvement projects. There are too many houses for sale in which the flow already works well. They can buy a great house for a great price without having to commit to a lot of work.
If you can't remember how to think like a buyer, here are a few suggestions: · Visit a few open houses in your neighborhood and price range to get a sense of what other sellers are doing.
· Try to imagine what you'd want in a house. How do you want to live?
· Talk with your agent about what kinds of properties and amenities she is looking for on behalf of her buyers.
· Visit model homes in new-construction developments to get a sense of what developers are trying to showcase.
Once you're thinking like a home buyer, you can use that information to help you retool as a home seller. How can you change your house so that when you list it for sale, there's real interest from buyers? If you owned the house I saw last week, you might spend $10,000 to open up the wall from the kitchen and switch out the dining room and family room.
But don't go out and make major repairs or renovations to your home until you understand what impact those repairs or renovations will have on your ability to sell the home and recover the money you put into it.
Your home could sell faster with a new kitchen, but that doesn't mean you should go ahead and renovate if the cost would be $65,000 and you wouldn't profit from the investment.
Remember, the trick to selling your house is to remove any possible objections a buyer might have to purchasing it. By thinking like a buyer, you're much more likely to change your "for sale" sign into one that says "sold."
Friday, July 11
To Sell to Gen-Y, You Have to Meet Them Online
by
Estridge Group
on Fri 11 Jul 2008 02:08 PM EDT
To Sell to Gen-Y, You Have to Meet Them Online
By Ilyce R. Glink with Samuel J. Tamkin
Saturday, July ... more »
Wednesday, July 9
In Parkwood, a Lemonade-Stand Feel
by
Estridge Group
on Wed 09 Jul 2008 01:57 PM EDT
Where We Live
In Parkwood, a Lemonade-Stand Feel
By Mara Lee
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, July 5, 2008; ... more »
Friday, July 4
New This Week in Bethesda!
by
Estridge Group
on Fri 04 Jul 2008 09:46 AM EDT
Check out the community events calendar for what is happening in Bethesda!
http://www.americantowns.com/md/bethesda more »
Tuesday, June 17
Five Steps to a Credit Makeover
by
Estridge Group
on Tue 17 Jun 2008 08:33 AM EDT
5 Steps to a Credit Makeover
Great Credit Requires More than Paying Your Bills on Time
By Edward Jamison... more »
Monday, May 19
The Estridge Group's Active Listings - May 19, 2008
by
Estridge Group
on Mon 19 May 2008 12:32 PM EDT
Check out The Estridge Group's Active Listings! For more information check our websites: www.theestridgegroup.com or www.melindaestridge.com.
| MC6734055 |
4534 Rosedale ... more »
Saturday, May 17
The Hard Work of Finding a Good Match for a Mortgage Lender
by
Estridge Group
on Sat 17 May 2008 11:06 AM EDT
I 've received many e-mails lately from home buyers worried about finding a good lender.
Either they had a bad ... more »
Wednesday, May 14
Mortgage Broker Vs. Big Bank
by
Estridge Group
on Wed 14 May 2008 07:47 PM EDT
Is there an advantage to getting a mortgage through a mortgage broker vs. one of the big banks in town?... more »
Thursday, April 10
Bethesda Art Walk is Back!
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:00 AM EDT
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Free Guided Tours!April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, Sept. 12, Oct. 10
The Bethesda Art Walk features a free guided tour to participating galleries and studios on Art Walk Fridays during the spring and fall months. Guided tours give Bethesda Art Walk patrons the opportunity to learn about downtown Bethesda’s galleries and studios as well as their current shows featuring exhibiting artists.
Tour Info:Tours begin at 6:30pm and meet at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Attendees do not have to participate in tours to visit Art Walk galleries. Please note that tours are walking tours. The Bethesda Circulator stops within a few blocks of each Art Walk gallery if tour attendees need transportation. |
Guided Tour Participants:
Discovery Galleries, Ltd., 4840 Bethesda Ave.
Discovery Too, 7247 Woodmont Ave.
Fraser Gallery, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Suite EGallery Frame Avenue, 4919 Cordell Ave.
Gallery Neptune, 4901 Cordell Ave.
Heineman Myers Contemporary Art, 4728 Hampden Ln. Washington School of Photography, 4850 Rugby Ave.Waverly Street Gallery , 4600 East-West Hwy. |
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Thursday, March 13
Writing Contest - Do You Have What It Takes?
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 13 Mar 2008 08:42 AM EDT
Love to Write? Want to do it for Cash & Prizes?
The 8th Annual Bethesda Literary Festival’s Adult and Youth Writing Contests
Adult & Young Adult Contest:
Young adults ages 14-17 and adults ages 18 and up can participate in the Bethesda Literary Festival’s Writing Contest. Entries must include a 500-word short story or essay that includes some aspect of Bethesda, whether a memorable person, place or moment. The writers of the top four essays in each category will receive cash prizes, including a $500 award for first place, and be featured in a special event during the Bethesda Literary Festival.More information.
Youth Contest
Young writers ages 5-13 can express their creativity in the youth writing contest featuring the topic “If I Could Go Anywhere In the World, Where Would I Go & Why?” Winners of the youth contest will receive prizes, and the top three essays from the age groups 5-9 and 9-13 and their authors will be honored at a special children’s event during the festival. More Information.
Deadline for both contests is Friday, March 21, 2008 by 5pm.
All entries must include a completed submission form which is available atwww.bethesda.org. For more info call 301/215-6660.
Thursday, February 28
Save the Date - Dance Bethesda
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 28 Feb 2008 03:55 PM EST
Dance Bethesda - March 7 & 8
Dance Concert – Saturday, March 8 at 8pm
Featured performers: Aysha Upchurch / Life, Rhythm, Move Project (hip-hop), Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company (modern), Daniel Burkholder / The PlayGround (modern), Maryland Youth Ballet (ballet), Step Afrika (stepping) and Ziva’s Spanish Dance Ensemble (flamenco).
The concert takes place at Round House Theatre, located at 4545 East West Highway. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children 12 & under.Purchase tickets in advance online. The concert begins at 8pm on Saturday, March 8. Doors open at 7pm for ticket sales and will call. For more info,click here.
______________________
Hip-Hop Master Classes – Saturday, March 8
Adult Master Class Almost Full; Youth Class Still Has Space
Jamile “Jamz” McGee, made famous by the FOX reality show So You Think You Can Dance?, will teach master classes at Joy of Motion on Saturday, March 8. Hip-hop for youth will be held from 12:30-2pm and hip-hop for adults from 2:30-4pm.
Dance Bethesda Master Classes are $25. Dancers canpre-register online now or by returning a completed form and payment to the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District. Registration forms are available atwww.bethesda.org or by calling 301/215-6660. For more info,click here.
______________________
Free Lessons & Parties - Friday, March 7
Dance the Night Away at Bethesda Studios!
On Friday, March 7 from 8 – 10:30pm, attendees can enjoy salsa, cha cha, hip-hop lessons and many other dance techniques at Dansez! Dansez!, DuShore, Imagination Stage’s Dance Studio and Joy of Motion Dance Studio. No tickets or reservations necessary. Enjoy the Bethesda dance scene.
For more info,click here.
Thursday, February 21
New Listing from The Estridge Group
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 21 Feb 2008 10:57 AM EST
New Listing!!!!! 10016 Bexhill Dr. Kensington MD 20895
Open House Sunday 2/24 1-3pm.
Come out and see us this Sunday in Rock Creek Hills! Classic charm! 5 bedroom, 4 bath with a spacious kitchen & breakfast room, family room addition, and 2 car garage. Gorgeous street on a beautiful corner lot. For more information please visit our website: www.estridgegroup.com.
Thursday, February 14
President's Day Closing Schedule
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 14 Feb 2008 10:52 AM EST
Presidents’ Day closing schedule
Montgomery County government will observe the following holiday schedule for Presidents’ Day on Monday, Feb. 18:
County Offices — closed
Libraries — closed
County liquor stores — open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the exception of the following stores, which will be closed: Auburn, Cabin John, Diamond Square, Gaithersburg and Twinbrook.
Ride On — Weekday schedule
Metrobus — Weekday schedule
Metrorail — 5 a.m. to midnight
Parking at public garages, lots, curbside meters — free
Refuse⁄recycling pick-up — regular collection
Transfer Station — open
MCPS Administrative Offices — closed
State offices & courts – closed
Thursday, February 7
National Clean Out Your Computer Day is February 12!
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 07 Feb 2008 09:11 AM EST
Get a Grip on Your Gigabytes! National Clean Out Your Computer Day is Feb 12Category and/or Group (Business and Professional) February 6th, 2008
 It may not look as cluttered as your closet…it may not seem as out of control as those file cabinets in your basement. But most of us have computers that are stuffed with useless files, old emails and who knows what else. Tuesday, February 12 is National Clean Out Your Computer Day—so take control! Here are some easy ways to get a handle on that hard drive.
- Have your computer files mirror the ones you use to file paper. That will make it easier to find things on – and off—line.
- While most things on your computer will be archived, also, create a “Working” file to put all that random stuff you’re currently dealing with.
- Organize and update your bookmarks. Choose the “Organize” feature to create files with names that group your bookmarks in a logical fashion.
- Clean up your hard drive by deleting working drafts of old documents, outdated information, empty or duplicate files. If you need to save anything for legal reasons, either print out hard copies or save them to a backup drive first.
- Organize your email by first deleting all spam and outdated messages. For those you need to keep, set up files by client, project or product name, or by subject. And while we’re talking email, make sure you have the most current anti-spam and anti-virus software installed on your computer.
- When you get new emails, immediately do one of four things:
- Reply immediately
- Delete
- Forward immediately if appropriate or
- File in the right folder
Thursday, January 31
Restaurant Week and Bethesda Art Walk
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 31 Jan 2008 09:04 AM EST
Check out Bethesda's Restaurant Week and the
Feb. 8th Bethesda Art Walk!
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Restaurant Week, Jan. 28 - Feb. 3, 2008, returns to offer prix fixe lunch and/or dinner menus at 35 Bethesda area restaurants. A two-course lunch is $12 and a three-course dinner is $30. Restrictions may apply. Please call individual restaurants for restrictions, menu options and reservations. To see a complete listing of restaurants, go to http://www.bethesda.org/misc/restaurantweek.htm.
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The Bethesda Art Walk takes place on Friday, February 8, 2008. Twelve downtown Bethesda galleries and studios open their doors from 6-9pm showcasing local, national and international art. Many of the galleries hold opening receptions in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk, which is held the second Friday of every month. To learn more, go to http://www.bethesda.org/arts/artswalk.htm
Friday, January 4
Building laws need overhaul
by
Estridge Group
on Fri 04 Jan 2008 09:04 PM EST
Group: Building laws need overhaul
Legislation expected from Berliner in spring will be based on task force recommendations
by Audrey Dutton | Staff Writer
An ambitious project that quietly ended in mid-December may redefine how houses are built in Montgomery County.
The 19-person task force chosen by County Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac began meeting in downtown Bethesda last spring.
Their task was to address the so-called ‘‘mansionization” trend — tearing down small old houses to build bigger new ones — that has turned affluent Beltway suburbs into crucibles for disputes.
If the group’s recommendations carry forward into County Council legislation this spring, as expected, new rules would limit building size and give neighborhoods a stronger legal role in guiding residential development.
The task force was made up of six downcounty residents; five building industry professionals; and eight county government representatives to give planning and legal perspectives.
Six conflict resolution specialists were brought in to cool tempers and lead the group to consensus.
The task force ended its final meeting Dec. 10 with a set of recommendations that may become the future of homebuilding in Montgomery County.
Berliner will translate the task force recommendations into a legislation package to be introduced to the council this spring.
‘‘Everything that we reached consensus on will be included in the legislation,” Berliner said.
Berliner’s package would apply countywide, although changes would mostly impact areas that Berliner represents.
The package will include legislation that:
*sets most of the county’s lot-coverage limits based on the lot’s total size, in increments of 1,000 square feet, instead of on zoning designations;
*decreases the height limit to 35 to 50 feet for single-family detached homes on lots larger than 20,000 square feet, like those found in Bethesda’s Bannockburn neighborhood;
*excludes smaller porches from being factored into how large a house can be;
*allows neighborhoods to set voluntary building guidelines, created with help from county building experts;
*requires builders to obtain neighborhood guidelines before construction begins;
*requires the Department of Permitting Services to print its definition of the ‘‘sloping lot” measurement that lets some homeowners build taller homes because of the tricky topography.
The county has legal standards for residential building height, setback, lot area and width, and lot coverage. Rules are enforced by regulatory agencies like the Board of Appeals and Department of Permitting Services. But critics say the rules are confusing and antiquated — ordinances date back to the 1920s.
According to a report issued in mid-February by the county’s Office of Legislative Oversight, zoning ordinances are muddled by ‘‘varying uses and interpretations over time by government authorities.”
‘‘The challenge is that, by waiting as long as we did, by the fact that so little had been done over the years, it becomes more important to act now,” Berliner said. ‘‘It’s unfortunate that we’re acting at a time when the [housing] industry is not in its strongest position by any stretch of the imagination.”
Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac and Kensington had 77 percent of the county’s home teardowns and rebuilds in the last five years, according to the oversight report. Homeowners in those areas also made about 4,750 additions and renovations during that time — or 950 per year on average. With those projects have come disputes about development.
‘‘Builders don’t want to incur the wrath of the community, and community members don’t want to be fighting their neighbors,” Berliner said.
The task force failed to agree on everything. For those mainly esoteric, technical homebuilding rules, Berliner said he will make the call in his legislation.
‘‘Neighborhood compatibility is what I was looking for,” said Len Simon, an urban affairs advisor and task force member representing the Edgemoor neighborhood in downtown Bethesda. ‘‘You are not always going to find precise common ground [between industry and community interests]. But I do think we found consensus on a number of areas.”
Thursday, December 27
County prepares to open residence for homeless
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 27 Dec 2007 10:16 AM EST
County prepares to open residence for homeless
Residents, neighbors tour the 10-unit Silver Spring building
by Agnes Jasinski | Staff Writer, Gazette.net
Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette
This apartment building at 527 Dale Drive will open in January as a facility for formerly homeless residents. It will be operated by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, which held an open house on Thursday. | Eight men and women trying to break the cycle of homelessness will have a permanent place to live by mid-January in a Silver Spring neighborhood.
An open house was held at the building on Thursday. The Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless will manage the facility, and a live-in resident counselor and a services office will occupy two of the units.
The plan generated emotional testimony last year from neighbors, some who were concerned about the building’s location near two schools and a beer and wine store, and others who argued that the community should support a plan that would dramatically change people’s lives.
The new residents have not yet been chosen.
All of the residents must be considered ‘‘chronically homeless” by U.S. Housing and Urban Development guidelines, which means they must have been homeless for a year or more, or have had four episodes of homelessness in three years.
‘‘It’s not making a dent in the number of homeless. It’s a ping. ... But I have to look at it as eight units, and what that means. Eight more people now have a permanent home,” said Sharan London, executive director of the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless.
The residents who are able to work will pay 30 percent of their incomes as rent, said Susan Kramer Yancy, a spokeswoman for the HOC. On-site support staff will offer therapy and employment and rehabilitative aid.
‘‘There are studies that claim many Americans are two paychecks away from being homeless themselves. ... The homeless don’t need to be a class of beings from another planet,” said Mary Campbell, a neighbor of the residence who has spent time making quilts for each of the eight new tenants.
At the open house, county representatives and those involved in the project spoke to its value and toured the apartments. The cost of purchasing and renovating the site, which was covered by federal, state and county funding, was about $2.75 million. Much of the labor was donated by the Silver Spring-based Home Builders Care Foundation.
County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5), who lives down the street from the building, said she was happy to have the new neighbors. Sally Roman, an HOC commissioner, said the facility had special meaning during the holidays.
Alan Bowser, president of the Park Hills Civic Association and a member of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board, said while the community is supportive of programs assisting the homeless, the HOC could have been ‘‘much more proactive in reaching out to the community.”
At a public hearing in April 2006, some community members raised concerns about the facility’s proximity to Sligo Creek Elementary and Silver Spring International Middle schools. Residents also complained about what they called a last-minute notification process that left many wondering if their apprehensions were really considered by the HOC.
‘‘It’s a beautiful facility, and we look forward to welcoming our new neighbors,” Bowser said. ‘‘But people had a number of questions for the HOC that were never really addressed.”
London said she hoped the residents’ uneasiness with living near the formerly homeless would be addressed in time. And the security at the building — cameras, a sign-in process and a buzzer to enter — was as much to make the neighborhood feel safe as to make the residents feel safe.
Debbie Spielberg, chairwoman of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board, said despite some neighbors’ apprehensions, the building was ‘‘a positive thing.”
‘‘I understand the concerns, but it seems like it’s a well-designed program. ... I’m hopeful,” said Spielberg, who also has a child at Sligo Creek Elementary.
At a glance
In January, the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless conducted a one-day survey of the county’s homeless. On that day:There were 1,139 men, women and children who were homeless.
There were 810 homeless adults. Of those, 236 were employed but unable to afford housing.
There were 583 homeless adults with at least one disability.
There were 329 homeless children.
Source: Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless
Friday, December 14
Santa's day can be hectic, but happy
by
Estridge Group
on Fri 14 Dec 2007 03:12 PM EST
Santa’s day can be hectic, but happy
by Erin Donaghue and Patrick Dunne | Courtesy of Gazette.net
Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette
Louay Youssef, 11, of Potomac talks with Santa Claus during downtown Bethesda’s Winter Wonderland festival Saturday. For more Winter Wonderland photos, see Page A-20. | It’s that time of year again — Santa is descending upon malls and shopping centers, dressed in his signature red and white, to the delight of area children.
Because Santa Claus is so busy this time of year, he often enlists people to help him. And in the spirit of the season, that means donning the suit Santa has made so famous.
Santa and Mrs. Claus — known to some as Dale and Trish Parris — are a match made in the North Pole.
When Santa Claus first appeared at Parris’s daughter’s elementary school in Stafford, Va., 12 years ago, it seemed out of character.
‘‘I thought, I’m a Marine, not a jolly little elf,” he said.
But Parris’s sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks seemed to qualify him to help the big man himself. He eventually agreed, and his wife, Trish — also a former Marine — helped Mrs. Claus. She sewed the couple’s outfits, but was careful to work at night while their young daughter was asleep, and hid the telltale red and white fur-lined suits before she woke up in the morning. The two began making appearances in the area.
‘‘Then, it kind of snowballed,” said Mrs. Claus, who is known to some as Trish Parris, at Cabin John mall on Dec. 2. ‘‘Literally.”
The ‘‘sleigh phone” — or cell phone — and ‘‘toy shop” — landline — are now staples for the couple who found a sleigh to grace the front yard of their ‘‘summer” home in Stafford. Their winter home?
‘‘The North Pole, of course,” Mrs. Claus said.
But Mrs. Claus has her share of issues with Santa — just like any couple.
‘‘I have to nail him to get him to trim it,” she said of her husband’s signature beard.
The beard makes the man, they say, and as far as the holiday goes, Parris’s qualifies him for the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas. The group allows men, who know the man, to network and swap answers to some tough questions they are commonly confronted with, such as ‘‘Where are all the reindeer?” Mr. and Mrs. Claus say.
They tell kids the reindeer ‘‘only leave the North Pole on Christmas Eve, and are resting up for the big day.”
After 30 years as Santa, Kensington resident Mickey Reilly, 70, knows children are happy to see him, even if he can’t see them.
‘‘I’ve been legally blind since birth,” said Reilly, who rides a fire truck in the Alexandria, Va., holiday parade each year. ‘‘Now I can’t even see off the top of the fire truck,” he said. ‘‘[Firefighters] help me get on top of the truck, and I get up there and wave, ring the bell. I used to be able to see the kids, but I hear them well enough.”
Reilly first fell in love with Christmas as a student at the Maryland School for the Blind in Frederick, when Santa came with presents — bow ties for the boys and perfume for the girls.
‘‘I really get a charge out of it,” Kensington’s Santa said, especially when children and parents notice his bright white boots and gloves.
Reilly said the boots are mukluks made from polar bear hide and gloves from a white squirrel after a successful hunt in Alaska in the 1970s.
‘‘All the kids say that’s the real Santa because look at the boots!”
Firefighters at Kensington have a long tradition of helping bring Santa to the Montgomery enclave.
This year, Kensington firefighter and resident George Bonelli helped at the town’s tree-lighting ceremony on Sunday and in the next couple of weeks, residents may see Santa atop a fire truck handing out candy canes and treats.
‘‘It’s part of what this department does to show the gratitude that we have for the community, to help that community atmosphere and reach out to people,” he said.
‘‘Safety Santa,” who is also known to some as Buck Young of Adamstown, winds his way through town on a fire engine, and hands out pamphlets and information on fire safety.
That’s because Young is the chairman of the Fire Prevention Committee at Carol Manor Volunteer Fire Co. in Adamstown. Dressed as the head elf, Young has been making rounds on his fire truck through Adamstown and in surrounding areas in Montgomery County for about 15 years.
Safety Santa will stop by Potomac Village on his fire truck on Sunday.
While he may use his time with children to teach about fire safety, the visits are ‘‘all about the kids,” he said.
Safety Santa is smart, especially when children ask why he is on a fire truck.
‘‘I tell them we’re getting the sleigh all fixed up for Christmas,” he said.
Friday, December 7
Winter Wonderland Events in Bethesda!
by
Estridge Group
on Fri 07 Dec 2007 07:00 AM EST
Bethesda’s Winter Wonderland, Special Saturday Shopping Hours for the Bethesda Circulator and Bethesda Art Walk!
Bethesda’s Winter Wonderland festivities will take place December 7 & 8.
A free professional choral concert will be held at Imagination Stage on Friday, December 7 at 8pm. On Saturday, December 8, watch as blocks of ice are transformed into wintry works of art and enjoy entertainment from local school groups and a visit from Santa Claus, all in Veterans Park.More Info.
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Car-Free, Care Free Holiday Shopping means that the FREE Bethesda Circulator will run on five Saturdays during the holiday shopping season. The Bethesda Circulator will run its normal route with special daytime hours from 10am – 6pm on Saturday, Nov. 24,Dec. 1, Dec. 8, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22 the. The Circulator service will also continue is regular Saturday evening hours of 6pm – 2am.
The Bethesda Circulator is the best way to get around downtown! Parking is free in Bethesda’s 17 public garages on Saturdays, Sundays and County holidays. The Bethesda Circulator connects many parking facilities, Metro and restaurants and retailers for easy navigation of downtown Bethesda.More Info.
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The Bethesda Art Walk takes place on Friday, December 14. Twelve downtown Bethesda galleries and studios open their doors from 6-9pm showcasing local, national and international art. Many of the galleries hold opening receptions in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk, which is held the second Friday of every month.More Info.
Thursday, December 6
Under Contract - Harvest Glen Way
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 06 Dec 2007 02:28 PM EST
Our listing on Harvest Glen Way is now under contract; however, we have several other fantastic properties available. Please visit our website at www.theestridgegroup.com
Thursday, November 29
Upcoming Events in December
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 29 Nov 2007 01:09 PM EST
Melinda Estridge and The Estridge Group would like you to inform you of the following updates and upcoming events in the Bethesda area.
Recently Sold Properties
7800 Moorland, Bethesda, MD
7908 Custer Road, Bethesda, MD
December 3-19 Afternoon Tea
Concert & tea. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane
Monday-Wednesday @ 1:00 p.m.
There is a cost of $20. RSVP to 301-581-5108
Thursday, November 15
Lecture focuses on Chevy Chase’s architectural history
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 15 Nov 2007 04:17 PM EST
The narrow, winding streets of Chevy Chase are lined by Dutch colonials, Tudor revivals and Spanish colonial villas. A Gambrel roof peeks through the tree line, hinting at the architectural history of Chevy Chase — a suburb that grew on acres of farmland.
‘‘Part of it’s the tree canopy, part of it’s the curvilinear streets following the topography,” said Mary Anne Hoffman of the Chevy Chase Historical Society and Chevy Chase resident. ‘‘Part of it’s the architectural diversity.”
Architecture in Chevy Chase — and the details and social trends that shaped its more than 6,000 single-family homes — is the topic of an upcoming lecture at the Chevy Chase Historical Society. Architectural historian Bill Lebovich will explain ‘‘How to look at Chevy Chase architecture,” at 8 tonight in the Leland Community Center, 4301 Willow Lane, Chevy Chase.
Hoffman stressed that the talk is purely historical in nature, not a sideways jab at developers or builders who take on Chevy Chase construction projects.
Lebovich said he doesn’t see 21st-century residential development ‘‘fitting in” with the historical talk. His goal is to make people look at Chevy Chase’s architecture in a different way, much like an art history lecture might focus on what makes each element of Byzantine painting important.
The topic nonetheless coincides with efforts by Chevy Chase municipalities to quantify and preserve their ‘‘Chevy Chase” character as they transform local building regulations.
‘‘Jurisdictions that are grappling with these incentives might learn something,” Hoffman said. ‘‘A useful contemporary application of history’s lessons [about architectural diversity] might be that smaller can be gorgeous.”
Land developers in Chevy Chase began promoting the hamlet in the 1900s, Hoffman said, enticing middle-class workers to buy homes in the budding suburb, Hoffman said.
‘‘The absence of sameness in architecture is one of the principal charms,” read a 1916 real estate flier advertising one of the later sections of Chevy Chase.
Since then, homes in Chevy Chase changed to accommodate social trends or an owner’s individual taste. Some were restored to their original state after previous owners made major alterations.
The Williams Farmhouse owned by Lars Hanslin on Williams Lane is one of the oldest in Chevy Chase. Its architectural details tell the story of rural, agricultural Chevy Chase’s transformation.
Built in the late 1880s, the two-and-a-half story L-shaped house with was once surrounded by a dirt farm. But the Williams land split into residential lots during the early 1900s’ residential boom, and new houses went up next door. By 1927, the farmhouse had a new entryway, a one-story garage and its porch was turned into a sunroom.
Hanslin said he has restored the original façade, hoping to recover the house’s historical character.
That kind of living structure ‘‘reflects the various owners,” Lebovich said. ‘‘Most people probably say it’s aesthetics, but really I think it’s more needs, I mean family changes.”
But why should anyone bother to learn Lebovich’s techniques of looking at Chevy Chase architecture?
‘‘I think the average answer that an artsy-fartsy person would give is, ‘Well, art is important,’ and I don’t buy that one,” Lebovich said. ‘‘In a good building — or even when there’s not a good building — you begin to appreciate things. You begin to appreciate the building next door. It informs opinion, increases your appreciation.”
Thursday, November 8
Johnson & Johnson boosts Maryland companies
by
Estridge Group
on Thu 08 Nov 2007 09:21 AM EST
Bioscience firms receive $350,000 to fight diseases
by Steve Berberich
A Maryland company’s potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is one of the projects getting a financial boost from health care products giant Johnson & Johnson.
Neuronascent Inc. of Clarksville received $100,000 to support its goal of producing neuron-repairing molecules for Alzheimer‘s disease, depression and other nerve degenerative conditions, in partnership with University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Biotechnology company 20⁄20 Gene Systems Inc. in Rockville received $150,000 to help develop, with the National Institutes of Health, new protein-based diagnostics for early disease detection.
And Biomedica Management Corp. of Baltimore received $100,000 for its research and development of products to treat inflammation, coagulation and tissue regeneration in cooperation with the Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Detrick in Frederick.
Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Office of Science and Technology program, formed in 1978, is a complementary component of Tedco’s Maryland Technology Transfer Fund. The program provides awards of up to $150,000 to existing Tedco portfolio companies or up to $75,000 for Maryland companies that have not received such a tech-transfer award in the past.
‘‘The success of these three companies is a testament to the value of seed funding,” said David Bowser, vice president of technology transfer and academic relations at the Johnson & Johnson program in New Brunswick, N.J., in a statement. ‘‘We look forward to continuing our partnership with Tedco through this fund, as it provides us with the earliest possible insight into what potentially could be groundbreaking research in the healthcare field.”
‘‘We are thrilled with the success these companies have garnered so far and are proud to support their further growth in collaboration” with the Johnson & Johnson program, said Renée Winsky, Tedco president and executive director, in a statement.
‘‘This partnership with Johnson & Johnson gives us the opportunity to help develop a subset of Maryland’s technology industry, that which focuses on health-related innovations.”
Friday, November 2
America Recyles Day
by
Estridge Group
on Fri 02 Nov 2007 10:00 AM EDT
Wednesday, October 24
Halloween happenings in and around Bethesda and Montgomery county
by
Estridge Group
on Wed 24 Oct 2007 10:29 AM EDT
It’s time for spooks and spirits and things that go bump in the night (probably looking for the last Snickers bar in the Treat bag)! Halloween began with the ancient Celts, who considered October 31 the last day of the year. On that night, they believed the spirits of the dead would roam the Earth. As a way to protect themselves during this spooky time, the living would hold a feast, visiting neighbors for contributions of food (hey, any excuse for a party).
We can thank the Irish for the jack-o-lantern, too. They used to carve turnips and place a small candle inside to keep evil spirits from their home on All Hallow’s Eve. When Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered pumpkins were much easier to carve.
Halloween has become second only to Christmas in spending. We’ll drop 2.5 billion this year – which is a lot of Milk Duds. But whether you go all out with a front-yard display that rivals Disney’s Haunted Mansion, or keep it simple with a single pumpkin in the window, remember to watch out for ghoulies and ghosties in your neighborhood!
Last-Minute Costume Ideas
Static Cling
Wear a solid color, like all white or all black. With safety pins, pin anything from socks, to underwear, even dryer sheets, all over yourself. For extra-“static,” use hairspray to put your hair on end.
Crash Test Dummy (Post-Crash)
Don a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Cover yourself with pieces of masking tape, bandages, fake blood – and a seatbelt made of webbing and an old buckle.
Skunk
Wear all black (a black leotard and tights is perfect) and put a white tape stripe down the back.
Halloween Safety Tips
· Welcome Trick-or-Treaters with porch lights and all exterior lights turned on.
· Set a time limit for your kids to "trick-or-treat" and designate a specific route for them to take. Also, feed the kids before they go so they’ll be less likely to scarf their treats before they get home (well, one can hope).
· Chocolate is poisonous to many animals, so keep candy away from pets.
· Keep pets in a separate room during trick-or-treat hours; people in strange garb can be scary.
· When driving, be extra-alert for excited kids, whose vision may be obscured by masks.
Haunted Houses
Bennett's Curse
7000 Arundel Mills Circle
Hanover, MD 21076
http://www.bennettscurse.com/main.html
Nightmares from Elmridge
5400 East Drive
Side Entrance on Maple Ave
Downtown Arbutus
http://www.nightmaresfromelmridge.com/index.html
Creekside Manor
11759 Snug Harbor Lane
Williamsport, MD 21795
301-223-6663
http://www.creeksidemanor.com/
Haunted Hike 2007
7580 Pindell School Road,
Fulton, MD 20759
301-576-1417
http://www.hauntedhikemd.com/
Kim's Krypt Haunted Productions
1748 Merritt Boulevard.
Dundalk, MD 21222
http://www.kimskrypt.com
BLACK BEARD'S REVENGE
4101 NE Crain Highway
Bowie, MD 20716
301-805-6000
http://www.baysox.com//
Dub McGinnis c/o McGinnis' Hill Entertainment
1440 West Pulaski Highway
Elkton, MD 21921
410-620-1169
http://www.mcginnishill.com
Saturday, October 13
Last Minute Home Preparing for Open House
by
Estridge Group
on Sat 13 Oct 2007 07:05 PM EDT
Prepare your home for viewing with open house. This is a great way to sell your home quickly. Open House can be an exciting time for the home owners and for the buyers. The home owner is very ready to sell their house. And open house is a great way to do it. There is a time set for open house. And it is advertised prior to having the open house to let the people know what day and time the open house will be. So that all the interested buyers can come and look at the house. The Realtor will be at the open house to show the house and answer any questions about the home for the potential buyers. They can make up flyer's of the house so the buyers can take one home with them if they are interested in the house.
Before open house takes place the home owner must get the house ready to be viewed. The home owner will want the home to look its best inside and outside. This will help the home to sell. And get more people interested in buying it. Clean the home from top to bottom. Making sure the home is spotless. You may need to paint some of the rooms or touch up paint in certain areas of the home. Clean all carpeting and buff floors to have them looking their best. Make sure beds are made up and everything is in its place. Pick up all clutter around the house and put it away. Put out clean towels in the bathroom. Air out your home so that no odors are lingering around. Make sure your window treatments are washed and clean. Also clean your windows. So that they look clean from the inside as well as the outside of your home.
Outside of your home pick up any debris laying in the yard. Put things away like bikes and any lawn equipment. Make sure your shrubs are trimmed and your landscaping is nice and manicured. Plant flowers. Clear walk paths. Mow your grass. And trim weeds around you home. Do paint touch up jobs if needed around doors and windows. Have you home looking presentable for open house. The outside of your home will give the buyers a first impression of the property. So it is very important to have it looking good. If you have a garage. Clean it out and remove your vehicles so that the buyers can see all the room that they will have. Doing these things and more will help to sell your home and maybe get more then one offer on the home for you to consider.
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