From student renter to scholar homeowner

This is the next column I published, holding up Thomas J. Ernste
as an example of the "grad student home owner" I envisioned
in the previous column, "visualize student home ownership."

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/12/10/72164957

One additional point of interest: The concept of a "neighborhood"
is different in Minneapolis than in other cities where I have lived.
In Minneapolis, a neighborhood is a very rigidly-defined entity with
definite borders and boundaries. But in some cities it seems to be
more of a fluid concept, and neighborhoods can shift according to
the whims of--for example--real estate agents, who may find it
easier to market a property if it is located in "North Niceville"
rather than "far south Mediocre."

So I found it interesting that Tom was willing to engage in
the "fluid definition" exercise and simply dub his neighborhood
"Near Northeast." Will this result in a secession movement
in a few decades? One wonders.

I also seem to recall Tom's preferred spelling and capitalization
may have been different, maybe it was "Near North East" or
something else. I said something to Tom about how I might have
to do it the way the production staff at the Minnesota Daily
preferred it.

In fact, I can't get "North Side" past them, they insist on
"north side," which I find too much like a description--like
"reddish black" or "partly cloudy" and not enough like a
geographic entity, like "Upper Boratistan."

But at least they capitalized Tom's label of "Near Northeast,"
and so history was written if anybody salutes this one as
it goes up the flagpole!