Years ago, I think it was the early '70s, my sister, Arlene, was looking for an apartment. She saw one in a very undesirable part of New York City. As the old joke goes, this neighborhood was so bad that the ad in the paper read, "Short run to the subway."

It was a large loft that the landlord, so desperate to get rid of, was offering it for $75 a month. I'm not sure what the reason was for my sister not taking the apartment. Maybe it was the group of junkies heating up a dead rat for dinner in the living room....