Asymmetrical Information

It's Apia, the capital of Samoa. You're behind on your NYT crossword puzzles.

if you are letting them pack, make sure you have GOOD insurance. I come from a line of moving and storage people, and I can tell you some stories... Remember, to you it's YOUR stuff, to them, it's just $13 an hour [or whatever]...
One other plus, when you pull the stuff from storage, go through and get rid of stuff, right to the donation pile. Human beings rearely have this moment of clarity about their possessions... ;) best of luck...

Be careful. You cannot trust movers. I've had a bad experience every single time I've used them, and these days I just do it myself with a uhaul. Also, if you are in DC be careful about "Big Time Movers." Not to be trusted at all.

435 square feet? Goddamn, kilogram. I don't know how you New Yorkers do it.

Reminds me: I saw the comedian Todd Barry recently, and he talked about New York real estate. Paraphrased from memory:

"My friend answered a Craigslist ad looking for a roomate. In the ad, it said 'Must not be homophobic.' She said that's fine, I've got no problem with gay people, so she went to check it out. It's a one room apartment, with two beds inches from each other. It turns out the guy's a gay prostitute.

I just thought it was hilarious that that was his screening question. 'Oh, you're not homophobic? That's good. Because I'm going to be having sex with strange men for money all night, every night, three inches from your bed. You don't have a problem with small pets, do you? Because I run a cockfighting arena in the kitchen.'"

I've got a spare barn in Portugal if that's any help?
Yeah, yeah, I know, a barn, but it's a darn sight larger than 435 sq feet (about 3x actually) and it does have both electricity and wifi.

"Be careful. You cannot trust movers."

You have to find and hire good movers, and the good ones cost more. I've had movers pack and crate the contents of an entire house (antique furniture, art, china), put it in a container, ship it 8,000 miles by sea, take it out of the container, uncrate, and arrange in a new house, with absolutely nothing damaged in any way. It's not an easy craft, you need the good ones.

You might also be able to pay someone to straighten out the rest of your life. Same idea as the movers, but with differently shaped boxes and possibly weirder stuff.

(Full disclosure: This would be to my benefit, as I'd get more blog posts to read.)

If I had exactly 435 square feet, I would dedicate each square foot to one U.S. representative. There would be much competition for the square foot centered on the toilet bowl.

Several thousand dollars to pack the items in a 435 square-foot apartment? Are you exaggerating, or is that really the going rate in NYC? In 2003 it only cost around $3000 to pack and move the stuff in my 950-square-foot apartment cross-country.

Talofa lava laususuga. Apia is the capital of [the formerly Western] Samoa. It is not the capital of Upolu, which is the island upon which it is located. Robert Louis Stevensen lived and died here, and his former home is now the Governor's mansion. The other major island in Samoa is Savai'i. Pago Pago is the capital of our colony of American Samoa.

You have many Samoan fans!

Tofa soifua!

Hey Meg.

I still say you should check out far west Washington Heights (180s). I know two people who have found lovely one bedrooms up there in your price range in the past month and with the A train you can be at work in 20 minutes. Also, tons of parts for Finn.

Seriously, think about it.

Out here in the Pacific NW we call 435 sq. ft. a closet.

Ha ha. Perhaps more apropos of your last post, check this out.

How about this, I'm actually on Upolu island right now.

Reagan fan, I agree to some extent but I think the money could be better spent on medical treatment for those on the fringe rather than wasting it on the persecution and/or incarceration of a larger group of people.

And crack-lite may sound silly but people have chewed simple coca leaves for ages.

oops wrong thread. sorry.

THOUSANDS of dollars? I must be REALLY out of touch with the world. Or New York, which is for most people the same thing. To New Yorkers.

pack your own stuff and use the following site -- it will save you a lot of money; i've used it several times and have been extremely satisfied.

http://www.emove.com/

My NYC move with a similar amount of stuff cost $500 for real movers, or about $700 with the tip and some boxes. I packed things myself. The company movers, on the other hand, wanted $2,000.

"Also, tons of parts for Finn."

I've kept motorcycles running for a long time this way, but dogs? The future is closer than I thought!

You're paying way too much. Moving costs have dropped precipitously since the housing boom/bust. The moving business overexpanded to match the boom, now there is no work. I recently moved after living in the same place for about 12 years. I had twice as much stuff, but this move cost less than the one 12 years ago.

The internet isn't just for blogging you know. You can find a moving service sites that will get offers from about a dozen or so movers. You can then cut and paste their names and search the BBB for problems for each company. Take the cheapest company with a long history and no complaints.

I think maybe in this case, the movers knew much more about the real price of their service than the buyer did. What is that concept called again? Did you use the Akerlof, Spence and Stiglitz moving company?

"Out here in the Pacific NW we call 435 sq. ft. a closet."

here in the southwest we call it a condom. I kid...

"Out here in the Pacific NW we call 435 sq. ft. a closet."

Well I'm in Sydney, which we Aussies consider to be overcrowded and overpriced. And my bedroom has 18 square metres of closet space, which I think translates into 194 square feet (in the medieval English units of measurement you Americans use).

Congress has refused to put us through the trauma of metrification. They want us to spend all our computational energy on the income tax forms.

On topic, we have a wonderful local moving company that moved my entire house for $500 including packing, unpacking, assembling beds, everything. That was 15 years ago, but it would be cheap at triple the price. Too bad you're not in Syracuse, where you could buy two nice houses for what you pay in rent.

There's been a great innovation in moving -- making it like container shipping. They drop the container in your driveway, you pack it at your leisure, and then they put it on a truck and haul it for you. Sure wish I'd thought of that system. Wouldn't work for an apartment in the city, though.

"Out here in the Pacific NW we call 435 sq. ft. a closet."

435 square feet is roughly the size of a 40-foot sailboat. I could live quite happily on a 40-foot sailboat.

"Several thousand dollars" to move the contents of a 435 square foot apartment to a storage place? I am obviously in the wrong line of work...

While I realize this is an unreasonable response to a crossword puzzle, the right answer would be "It's a trick question! Upolu hasn't got a capital, because it's not a politically defined region." Apia is the capital of Samoa, and it's located on the island of Upolu, but it's not the capital of Upolu.