And that's the size of it!

Size matters! (No, I'm not referring to it in that sense!)

Let's try again...ahem...

Size matters! That's why I have to wonder if building contractors and land speculators know something I don't?

A number of new home developments cropped up in my area recently. I wondered at first, "Is it my imagination or are houses a lot larger nowadays?"

But then I figured it out. It's an optical illusion!

It isn't that the houses are bigger, but that the neighborhoods are smaller!

The streets are narrower. I knew it was hard to maneuver my car past another coming the other way on my street in an older neighborhood, but the streets in these developments, or what passes for them, are more like historic Boston "cow paths"--and that's said only with slight hyperbole. Two skateboarders would be lucky to pass each other if one were on the street and the other flying off a ramp over her.

And the space between the houses is like that of San Francisco! Almost all the homes in San francisco butt up against each other, side to side. In most cases, you have enough space literally to slip a deck of cards between them, but in the 'burbs"? No way!

And the "yards' in these new developments are no larger than the interior of a Port-0-let. (Watch where you fling that Frisbee. That is a Frisbee, isn't it??)

And so, that's the illusion. The houses are stacked one on top of the other throwing shadows across narrower streets, giving them the illusion of being bigger than they really are.

So I ask again, do building contractors know something that's not common knowledge?

Well, I think I found the answer.

There's a reason for smaller neighborhood spaces. Space is at a premium, because according to major reports the earth is shrinking! Yes, shrinking!

When I was a kid, I remember hearing that the advent of the "jet plane" made the world a lot smaller. But that was metaphorical shrinking. And more recently, airlines report that the average American girth is larger, which makes the seats smaller. But that's a relative shrinking.

What I'm referring to is a literal shrinking!

A recent Reuters headline cited that "Italy Sounds Alarm Over Shrinking Beaches". It explained that Italy faces a "national emergency". Its beaches are shrinking at an "alarming rate, posing a threat to nature and to the country's huge holiday trade". It continues, "Europe loses 5.8 square miles of beach a year...Italy, with 4,700 miles of coastline, is one of the hardest-hit countries... 1.5 square miles of local beaches vanished 'in recent years'".

This is a blight on Italy's tourism, but it's a boon to the building industry...build narrower, build up; build smaller and look bigger; push those prices up!

Need more evidence of a shrinking world?

Take a look at Mount Everest! Don't worry, you can use scaled-down binoculars.

The Canadian Broadcast Corportion recently cited, "China Fears Mount Everest Shrinking". They said that China is sending a team of scientists to re-measure Mount Everest because, according to Chinese state reports, the snow-covered mountain top is believed to have shrunk to a low of only 8,848 metres.

This a blight on tourism and on the potential for world record climbs.

But as reason would have it, if Mount Everest shrinks anymore, it'll have to push up somewhere else! The Gobbi Desert will become the Gobbi Mountain Range! And with its new elevations, the region will reap the economic boon of skiing and tourism!

"Saaaayyy! Have I got a deal for you! May I interest you in some shares in our beautiful new 'Gobbi Peaks Ski Chalet'?"

Joe (Aspiring building contractor and land speculator)