I'm guessing no, since these are small lots, and the zoning in this part of town is rough on anything other than mother-in-laws.

What's the lot size?

Mother says it's pretty easy to get a variance in Seattle proper, or was when she was still selling real estate. Given the number of townhomes I've seen going up around the city, I don't expect it's somehow become harder in the last few years.

One of the most depressing things about Ballard was seeing little single family affordable homes get snapped up and turned into monster townhomes, and those were generally on the standard issue 5000 sqft lot.

I'm not so sure it would be his defense -- he identified it as part of Acts. Again, getting his books mixed up.

I know, but Acts is really Luke pt. II, and if he studied them together (which is how I read the initial blurb), I could see him muddling them some, after the fact. Still--if there's no Jesus in the book, there are no parables in the book. It's an easy NT rule of thumb when you're faking up your Bible knowledge.

Also, I think the guy may have completely missed the point of the parable, but that's another riff.

but Acts is really Luke pt. II

Ah. It's been a long time.

Ah. It's been a long time.

In today's NYT, there's an article about a co-op in Manhattan going for $50 million dollars: [link]

Here's the factbook breakdown of US religions: Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10% (2002 est.). Knowing the bible is part of knowing your electorate. Believing the bible shouldn't be

Is it expected in other countries with a large nominally Christian population? That's not the impression I've managed to get from friends outside of the US.

Do you think it is a prerequisite, or do you think that when someone pretends to have the knowledge, we reject them when they don't?

If it wasn't an unwritten prerequisite, people wouldn't be pretending to have the knowledge.

Boss: "You should have a copy of everybody's resume. You should have it on your computer. You should have it in your email. You should have it scanned and put into the tracking system."

This sounds all too much like one of my unlamented Jobs From Hell. Me: “Hi, I need to know how to format the pull quotes for the magazine.” Evil!Boss: “You should know that.” Me: “Sorry, I’m new here, and I’m afraid that I don’t know.” Evil!Boss: “Don’t take that attitude with me.” Me: “Um…well, how do you want me to find out?” Evil!Boss: (venomous look) “You should have that information.”

So then she sent me to look through the archives to find a pull quote … and then came by to lambaste me with harsh words about the disgraceful waste of valuable company time. She didn’t seem to understand why I wasn’t happy to chat with her when we crossed paths years later.

That's not the impression I've managed to get from friends outside of the US.

You know, it had never occurred to me that it would be otherwise, just because it seems to make so much sense. This is an aggregate impression from places I've lived, but other than Canada, they were officially Christian. It just seems ... incomplete preparation to ignore something like that. There are things about the electorate that aren't religion (like class, culture, etc) that one will want to be up on too.

If it wasn't an unwritten prerequisite, people wouldn't be pretending to have the knowledge.

Isn't that trusting the judgment of the people pretending the knowledge? They could be wrong in that assumption.

How much Bible knowledge have recent presidential hopefuls a) displayed b) been asked to display?

Yeah, I don't think W's ever displayed a lot of Biblical knowledge. Has he pretended to? I may just have missed it on account of the purposefully not paying attention to anything political until a date to be determined.

How much Bible knowledge have recent presidential hopefuls a) displayed b) been asked to display?

I don't think all that much as long as they don't start quoting scripture or saying that the Bible says this or that.