Unscrupulous real estate practices on the rise? As always, there’s a difference between what is legal and what different people consider ethical behavior. It bothers me when someone tries to justify bad behavior by saying “well, it’s legal”. Whether I do business with someone depends a lot more on whether I agree with their behavior than whether they are following the law. I suppose I prefer that they are legal and have similar ethics to me, but if they bend laws because the laws are silly, that’s just fine with me. Anyway, back to article. The writer has had recent direct experience with some very unscrupulous real estate agents. As always, it’s best to know yourself what you are entitled to and to also decide what, not necessarily illegal, behavior you can put up with. It’s one thing to be sold a shirt that wasn’t really made where it was advertised, but to get screwed over on probably the most expensive thing you will ever buy just plain ol’ sucks.

There’s a book out about the world of competitive Scrabble. I read somewhere recently that although Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in the U.S. (through a train of mergers and acquisitions), archrival Mattel owns the rights overseas. So they trade off their attendance at the world championships each year.

Random thought of the week: It would be so neat to own a vintage nurse’s cape. They evoke a bygone glamour and commitment to service. A reproduction would be in better condition for actual use, of course. (a few more examples from eBay that will disappear: vintage blue wool, 1940’s cape, and one for Barbie)

I love blueberries. Where I grew up in Connecticut they grew wild. We had bushes on our property and spent the summer hoping that the birds wouldn’t get to the berries before we did. In 1977 we had a bumper crop, enough for fresh eating and a pie! Low growing Maine blueberries are raked every August and September. According to this Mercury News article, you can grow blueberry bushes in my part of California, so perhaps I’ll give it a try one day when I have a yard. For now, I’m content with the pint boxes from the market. This week I made blueberry muffins. Next up, my first try at some yummy scones.

Satellite radio is beyond getting off the ground, it is about to fully launch. It’s being built into Cadillacs and has radio super monopoly (well OK, not really, but they own 1 out of every 10 U.S. radio stations) Clear Channel Communications as an investor. Will satellite radio become the radio of choice and cause the further homogenization of the medium? There is plenty of nationally syndicated programming on regular radio, but it still remains the bastion of local color and commentary in our media for the masses. Other than local traffic and news, there isn’t much that can’t be made into the nationwide programming we see on TV today. Is fully nationwide radio feasible or even desirable? I’d really miss the local flavor. It may one day be reduced to 10 second advertisements for local concerts.

Oh my. People collect AOL discs. And here I’ve been abusing mine by using them as coasters and microwaveable fun toys. I guess I’d better clean them off and put them for sale on eBay where they belong! Hmmm I wonder if I can get any money for my MSN CDs too? And I think I have some AOL floppy disks. Surely those are worth even more than the CDs, I mean, they are a lot older! Evil cackle. By the way, I’m saving my original Apple Developer’s CD (including musical tracks like the “Apple ][ Forever” theme song) in hopes of financing my kids’ college tuition. So if you have one, please throw it away. Thank you. (via Obscure Store)

I’ve got to be up very early today to cruise down to Santa Cruz for a work thing. We’ll be at Chaminade, which is supposed to be quite nice. No time for a coherent entry right now, maybe more later.

News from the Star Wars Episode II previews at International Comic-Con . “Jar Jar Binks will appear in Episode II, but only briefly.” I wonder if George Lucas had it planned differently before. Also in scifi news, Buffy DVDs are in the works. Excellent. I want to see the prom episode again and do some good sentimental sobbing.

KitchenAid’s “Cook for the Cure” partnership with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is selling a limited edition KitchenAid Ultra Power Stand Mixer (that’s the 300 watt model) in a lovely shade of pink. They are donating $50 from each purchase.

Pulitzer Prize Winner Larry McMurtry is better known to himself as a bookseller (NY Times article). He’s been buying and selling used books for many years, and has big plans to turn his hometown of Archer City, Texas, population 1,748, into a bibliophile’s paradise. “People always come to where there are a lot of books,” he says. And his store turns a profit. Probably not a huge one, but I doubt he needs a big salary.