I come from a musical family. Growing up in my home, playing musical instruments, dancing, and singing were the norm. On Saturdays, one of my older brothers would turn on the radio or put a stack of 45s on the stereo. We would dance with mops and brooms to Motown or other terrific music playing in the background while doing our chores.
As my younger brother now says, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing to music!” I wonder if this is his modern day version of the Mary Poppins’ lyrics “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” For old time’s sake, here’s a YouTube version of Julie Andrews singing it. Go ahead, press the button. You know you want to! ;)
Indeed, Disney movies as well as Broadway plays were a big while I was growing up, and their positive influence has remained with me. I have found their lyrics to be supremely instructional. Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific featured the song “Happy Talk” which may be seen as a precursor to the introduction of the power of positive thinking. In the Broadway musical, South Pacific’s character Bloody Mary sang the rhythmic song while playing matchmaker with her daughter and a military guy.
Happy talkin’ Talkin’
happy talk
Talk about things you like to do
You got to have a dream
If you don’t have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
. . .
If you don’t talk happy
And you never have a dream,
Then you never have a dream come true.
Clearly this is good advice with regard to anything we desire, and its magic is legendary for those of us who’ve followed it. We can see its fruits all around us. The fruit itself can be quite deliciously sweet.
However, the fruit can also be demonically poisonous. It just depends on the fruit about which one is happily talking. State Farm’s happy talk about its closed Katrina-related cases is a great example. Read more . . .
Welcome aboard Anna Marie! If there is one MAJOR issue here on the coast, it is the issue of insurance.Until it is solved, many folks and small businesses can't and won't return to normal. We have two main elected officials who need to be defeated this fall in MS in order to help break the hold that these companies have on us, those two being George Dale and Haley Barbour.
ReplyDeleteNice post.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you are going to buy a house and its in a flood zone or pretty close to it, buy the damn flood insurance.
You'd be amazed at how many times a closing is held up because the borrowers and realtors raise hell about being told they have to get flood insurance. They'll go out and pay for surveys, extra flood certificates etc just to avoid the coverage. Alot of times for this reason, a determination that flood insurance coverage is required is a kiss of death for a sale of a home. Its not that they don't want the home, its that they are usually cheapskates and don't want the coverage which is usually not that much.
I've also seen borrowers more than a few times raise hell because the lender required them to get coverage for replacement cost, not the pay off of the loan, like the borrower has 30K or 50K in their bank account to cover the difference if disaster strikes.
My point is, be a cheapskate on premiums if you must, but don't be a cheapskate on coverage itself. If you live below I-10, screw the floodmaps, you know you are at risk to eventually get hit by a hurricane. Get the coverage.
I know people who asked their insurance agents if they needed flood insurance and their agents told them no. They actually asked the people who are supposed to be the experts and the experts told them not to.
ReplyDeleteI'm not disagreeing with that at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about where the lender REQUIRES it because the flood certificate showed the elevation to be in a flood zone.
Usually when the borrowers and realtors find out, all hell breaks loose.
and no, they don't know until the appraisal is usually done its in a flood zone.
as for what you said, if I was an agent, I would 've typed up my own disclosure spelling out that flood insurance was not covered, was offered, and declined.