“Location, Location, Location” is the mantra in real estate, whether it be where to place a store or where to buy a home. Recently I’ve been amused by several location-based news stories.
From a posting on my residential association news feed:
“Sadly the store in Scarsdale called DAISO
next to Amazing Savings is closing December 7, 2024. I found it to be a unique fun store. If you have never been, you might want to take a run inside for holiday gifts etc.”
Now, ordinarily I would not find notice of a store closing to be a source of amusement. But Daiso is a Japanese -owned store. December 7 is not the best of dates to elicit feelings of sympathy for the Japanese company.
By the way, Japan is 13 hours ahead of New York time. So when the Daiso in Scarsdale closes for the last time at 9 pm on Saturday, December 7, it will be Sunday in Tokyo. Hmmm…
Naming Rights: On a family trip to Israel in 1990, Gilda struck up a conversation with the younger man sitting next to her. He introduced himself as Brad Berger, to which Gilda replied, “We live on the street named after you, Brad Lane.”
Brad’s father, Martin Berger, was a cofounder of Robert Martin Company, a diversified real estate development company. Martin’s partner was Robert Weinberg.
The subdivision we live in was built in 1966, one of the first Robert Martin residential projects before the company became the premier developer of office park complexes in Westchester.
There are three streets inside our development off Saxon Woods Road: Romar Avenue (obviously named after Robert and Martin); Teramar Way (for years I assumed this one block street was named for Terri and Martin, but I can find no record of a Terri Berger); and Brad Lane, named for the aforementioned Brad Berger who was 10 at the time our house was built.
My musings about street names was prompted by an article in The New York Times appropriately titled, “How Do New Streets Get Their Names (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/30/realestate/naming-streets.html?smid=em-share).
One of the rules contained in the article (for those who didn’t bother to link) is that street names should not be duplicated in a community so emergency services or just plain delivery drivers would not be confused.
There is, however, another Teramar Way listed in White Plains, with houses built in 1964. Its houses are technically in Greenburgh, just off Tarrytown Road, but are listed as having a White Plains address. More than once a deliveryman has brought an unsolicited meal or package to one of the homes on our development’s Teramar Way.
It’s a minor inconvenience, seemingly impossible to resolve. To no avail city officials have been asked for a street name change.
Travel Time: Somehow my Facebook feed knows I will be traveling to Argentina’s Patagonia region because I keep getting ads for sweaters, socks and gloves made with alpaca fibers.
“Did the World Need a Hot Santa? It Got One Anyway.”
That was the headline of a Times article December 1, with an email explanation that “A new series of ads from Target features Kris K., a “weirdly hot” version of the beloved character, continuing a trend of spicing up holiday favorites (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/28/style/target-hot-santa-ads.html?smid=em-share).
Since many Christmas songs were written by Jewish composers (“White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” to name just a few), I wonder if Jewish marketing mavens will pass up the opportunity to sex-up Hanukkah promotions? Can’t you visualize a buff, curly-haired Judah the Maccabee in gladiator-style skirt and armored top pitching silver menorahs, with candle wax dripping down his muscular legs?
Well, enough stimulation. Twenty more days till Hanukkah and that other festive holiday.
