puttin' on the ritz

It is impossible to come north without comparing American culture to my life in Mexico.

Take this billboard, for example.  Sure, we have billboards announcing housing developments and condominium towers in Mexico.  But nothing like this.

The top price for the privilege of buying a Ritz Carlton Residence at Palm Beach is $10 million.  Those are US dollars.  And it would take the average Amerian family 200 years to acquire enough funds to buy one -- as long as they were not silly enough to buy any food, pay any taxes, or do anything other than save up their pennies to live, well, in one of these.

OK.  I admit I may have stacked the deck.  It only looks as if the towers have no views other asphalt and corvettes.  In truth, they look out on miles of sub-tropical ocean.  You can probably see the hurricanes coming from miles away.

And what do you get inside?  The brochure is blunt.  The interiors are unfinished because the Ritz knows its customers.  The type of people who have enough money to indulge in their particular eccentricities.

There is room aplenty for these modern day Kubla Khans to build their shore-side Xanadus.  If you think that description is a bit over the top, take a look at this floor plan.  And recall -- this is an apartment.

If you do not hear from me for a month or two, it will because I am busy decorating my new home on Florida's Treasure Coast.