Les Berman Weekly 3-16 Ides of March. Sick Mummies. Scottish or Scotch? Lake Whillans.

Alas and alack. They told him, repeatedly, Julie, don’t go ! Julie don’t go ! Beware the Ides of March !! Yet he did, and Julius Caesar met his destiny at the hands, or knives, of Brutus (not the one of Popeye fame). And so went another Emperor. So, according to my calendar, yesterday marked the 2057th anniversary of the termination of the reign of Emperor Julius Caesar.. and so began the reign of the next guy. But thanks for the reminder from Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster, and of course, hats off to Ed Sullivan as well. And Happy St Patty’s Day!

 

Around the same time, approximately, within an eon or two, the inhabitants of planet Earth were looking for some Lipitor.

 

Researchers, led by a physician at the University of Missouri, examined 137 mummified bodies and found a lot of them had hardening of the arteries. Notwithstanding that a couple thousand years had passed, and every part of the mummified body had hardened, the medical condition was still evident. What they, and of course, I, found most interesting was that the eating habits of those people were vastly different from what we eat. They didn’t have much in the way of packaged meats or prepared foods, donut shops, sushi places, or McDonalds. Yet the incidence of artherosclerosis (I had to throw in a medical term just to prove I can copy type) was present in the same ratio, basically, as it is today.

The mummies were from diverse populations – Egyptian, Peruvian, Pueblo, and Aleutian and ranged from 1800 BC to the early 20th century. So my conclusions from these findings are very straightforward – eat whatever you want because odds are that you will die anyway. And take Lipitor.

 

Meanwhile, back in merry old England, yet another group of scientists has found more than 50,000 burned (or cremated for the genteel) bone fragments buried at Stonehenge. Although they were found 100 years ago, they were set aside by the archaeolgists of the time, as being unimportant. The fragments were of men, women, children and even a newborn infant. They are not able to extract DNA at this time. And the scientists have now been able to date the earliest fragments to 2500 – 3000BC. Nearby, remains of hut sites, tools, pots and lots of animal bones suggests that those were the site of a seasonal work camp for the builders of Stonehenge. Perhaps, rather than our current “bring your own booze”, at that time it was bring your own cow, or pig. The archaeologists have decided that more excavations are necessary.

I believe that eventually, they will find that there was a deep pit at one side of Stonehenge, and it was filled with water. That was for the kids who would dare each other to jump from the highest part of the rock.

 

In other news from ‘over there’, a creature with a long snake-like body, many legs, and a voracious appetite has been discovered near Loch Ness in northern Scotland. For my uninformed readers, Loch is Scottish for Lake. And Scottish is what the people are called. They are not Scotch. You drink Scotch. You cook with Scotch. You dance with Scottish. And really, does it matter in the context of discovering what this new found monster is about. Not one bit. But you have read every word. And I welcome you.

Anyway, that monster lives on a leaf and is related to the sawfly. The importance of this discovery and the other seven previously unknown species found on the 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate in the County of Inverness, Scotland is simple. Previous researchers liked the Scotch more than the Scottish !

 

More on the reports from the unknown. Gee, you’d think that Captain Kirk (I’ll bet he had some Scotch in his background) had been nosing around. Lake Whillans is a body of water located on the southeastern edge of the Ross Sea, which, as we all know, is on the western side of Antarctica. There are more than 300 large bodies of water that have been identified under the White Continent (yes – so called because of the snow and ice and you knew that). I know you’re going to ask, so I will tell you that they are kept liquid by geothermal heat and pressure. Some of these lakes are pristine and may have been in place for thousands of years. There is a chance that they host organisms unknown to modern science. I think Kirk, Scotty, and Spock have to make some decisions before some jokers try to investigate and accidently unleash another Pandora’s Box of catastrophe on our planet. Or, perhaps those lakes contain the secrets that Ponce de Leon was searching for before he died of old age!

 

Rates are slowly creeping up in spite of the efforts by the government. What a great time to buy a home – before rates get up there again. When I bought my first home in Los Angeles, I paid 12%, and was happy to get it. When rates hit the fives, you’re going to hear screaming from every corner of the country. So don’t scream, act now. Call me. Today 818.305.4695.

And in other activity, I am representing funds that are available for structured financing on commercial projects anywhere in the country. If it makes sense, we might have the money for you. But you won’t know until you pick up the phone. 818.305.4695.

Have a better week.

Les

Berman’s Factoids of the Week:

If it’s illegal to drink and drive, why do bars have parking lots?

How does the guy who drives the snowplow, get to work?

Why do they call it a ‘building’? Isn’t it a ‘built’?

Why is ‘verb’ a noun?

 

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Les Berman CMC Real Estate Loan Specialist         NMLS ID 227675 Voice: 818.305.4695 Email: les@lesberman.com