1. It feels good when you find a plausible answer to what you thought was anomaly. Good that I discussed the problem (yesterday, # 1) with YC and JBB. Now things fall into places. Have run separate smaller regression and got identical results leading to the "anomaly" yesterday -- now in quotation, since as it turns out, it is no longer anomaly. Here's the story. Those respondents who claimed that lot size is "very important" factor when buying a house happen to already have larger-than-average lot size (compared to the overall sample mean). Same thing with house size. That is why, despite the fact that they expressed greater importance of lot size, the variable itself, as shown by the estimate, doesn't have big effect on their buying decision.

2. A reporter from Chicago Tribune contacted JBB, asking to make appointment for extended interview regarding our report on the Project W. He wrote to JBB that "people keep citing your study" and "it was very influential". Let's see how the coverage plays out.

3. The day as it is crawling:: Sahoor: indomie, egg, chips, tangerine. Ifthar: pita, hummus, chicken, salad, pepsi. Coffee: Guatemalan. Music: Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Weather Report. Reading: NYT (Tom Friedman's column. He is still a liar! Lexus and Olive Tree time is over, buddy). Radio: George Ryan's bribery scandal (and he was nominated for a Nobel? Give me a break). Work: discussed the strange result with JBB via email (see # 1 above); extended models as to include dummies for family size; interacted with each main attributes; running another set at home with OxGauss (letting the parameters lot size, house size, public areas, and class size to be random); cross-checked matrix order (Gauss is poor when it comes to data manipulation, Stata is better. But Stata is not good for simulation -- Gauss is), JBB reminded me to send an abstract for Colorado workshop -- due Dec 31. Others: compressed old files to create more space in this lovely old machine: yeah I have been abusing it forever; light but constant snow: now 2 inches outside; Mumford Hall is quiet: people are having holidays? What, holidays?