large radical anthologist riled (forwarded)

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Jon wrote (to me off list):

Michael--I feel it is time to stop this conversation as  I have been
accused 
(along with you) of being a "boring asshole" by a certain Fontaine. I
will 
just clarify where my money for real estate came from: 1) Modest
personal 
savings, plus $1000 from my wife and selling off a car I had restored to
buy 
  in 1972 my first house, a small shingle 1915-vintage  cottage in AS IS 
condition in Piedmont, CA. 2)Refi and eventual  resale of that house 
3)Buying another run-down, very large  house in Oakland Hills for about 
$64,000 4)Refi of the hills home 5)Buying several fixer-upper large 
mansion-like houses older houses in gentrifying areas of Oakland  6)
selling 
these houses after fairly short holding times 7) With the profits and
sale 
of the hills home,  buying a nice five bedroom fixer-upper in the
Claremont 
area of Berkeley to which I added an attic room and a small apartment to
the 
rear.8) After sale of the Berkeley home in 1989, moving to Palo Alto to
buy 
a smaller, over-priced shingle bungalow. I think I'll stay here until I
die. 
No inheritance, no family gifts-- just sweat equity, re-fi, a little bit
of 
rental income,  and riding out the real estate market. My only regret is 
that I sold off my houses rather than keeping most of them as rentals.
But 
then I could have been called a "slum lord," which you for some reason 
assumed I was.

And where did you get your information that I flunked out in English at 
U. 
Michigan? I have only been on that campus once in my entire life, to
perform 
an anti-war theater piece. I got an M.A. in Comp Lit from U. of 
Wisconsin.Very nice place to hang out in the late 60's, but the Vietnam
War 
and the end of student draft deferments pushed me into thinking grad
school 
wasn't worth the hassle.

Jon