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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (noun)
[tah-MER-i-tee] 
1. reckless and unreasonable disregard of danger; rashness; heedlessness: "Either pride, temerity, or both, caused the commander to rush into battle without proper reinforcements."
Origin:
Approximately 1387; from Middle English, 'temerite'; borrowed from Middle French, 'temerite,' or directly from Latin, 'temeritatem': blind chance, accident (nominative 'temeritas'), from 'temere': by chance, blindly, rashly; akin to Old High German, 'demar': darkness. In action:
"Evelyn and Everett Ortner are the original gentrifiers, a word whose pejorative connotations seem unfair when applied to people who have dedicated the last 40 years to the welfare of Park Slope the way others invest a lifetime in similarly all-consuming causes, like painting or the environment.
Back in 1963, they bought a brownstone on Berkeley Place, a small street radiating out from William Tecumseh Sherman's gilded saddle in Grand Army Plaza, for $32,500, and then sweet-talked friends and acquaintances into joining them on this new frontier. They beat back federal urban renewal projects that subsidized brownstone demolition in the name of slum clearance. They cajoled banks that had redlined the neighborhood into giving mortgages. They measured their progress one house sale at a time. Every house saved from a speculator or an absentee landlord was a victory.
'When Evelyn and I moved here, this was a place where the rich did not come,' Mr. Ortner said last week over coffee in the meticulously preserved dining room of their four-story house, where the original dark green and bronze Victorian paint and lincrusta wallpaper in the foyer, characterized by a raised pattern of papier-m�ch� and linseed oil, remain intact. If they had to do it over now, the Ortners could hardly afford the house they had the foresight - or was it the temerity? - to buy in their past."
Anemona Hartocollis. "The Couple Who Saved Park Slope," The New York Times (April 25, 2004).
"Ms. Siddiqi blames the temerity of the international aid agencies and the foreign forces for the failure to make progress outside the capital.
'Donor countries are concentrating on Kabul,' she said, adding that 'it would help' NATO's tentative first effort at a presence outside Kabul 'if they would actually get out of their bases.' It's a view shared by others who have seen the operation in Konduz, marked by reticence instead of the haste and perseverance that are called for.
'Now, there is a window to rebuild Afghanistan with the rule of law and an economy that offers some hope,' said General Richard Hillier, the Canadian currently in command of the NATO forces, 'but that window won't stay open forever.'"
Paul Koring. "Comment: And now for some good news," [Afghanistan is hardly a picnic, but PAUL KORING looks around and sees signs of hope. The violence appears to be easing, Kabul is a boom town and President Hamid Karzai even seems to have an army, of sorts. With luck, the rest of the world won't lose interest too soon and break the spell.] The Globe and Mail (April 24, 2004).
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