Nothing in Fidium's service became it like the ease of my leaving it

You won’t find Malcom on TV, alas.

We’re back — Fidium never did call me to set a date for bringing my Internet back ( my “ONT” box failed, and had to be fixed/replaced by a technician at my house) so I gave up yesterday, and ordered service from XFinity, which I had previously switched from, they sent me a do-it-yourself box that arrived this morning, and I’ve spent the day reconnecting all my various devices — oh, the wonder of passwords. Anyway, everything’s up and running except for my Amazon TV. I don’t watch TV — I’ve turned it on exactly twice this year — but, damn it, suppose I did want to watch a show? There’s no point to having a large useless black screen taking up space in my living room, so I tried to connect it; two hours devoted to that task, so far, and I’ve given up, at least for now.

But, the good part of Fidium is that they actually have real, English speaking Americans in whatever department handles cancellations, and “Brian” was polite, apologetic, not that he owed me an apology, and had the entire transaction completed in 3-4 minutes. I told him that he was the first useful person I’d encountered in Fidium’s corporate structure and that he should be put in charge of service. He had no comment.

In any event, I’m exhausted by that whole messy process, but I’ll get back to blogging later tonight or tomorrow; check back in, please.

Internet’s down, blogging is frightful

A very nice woman in India assured me that a technician would be visiting “soon”, but couldn’t tell me (I asked, politely) whether that meant some time before Christmas or in what year. I’ll probably decamp to a coffee shop with a hotspot- I’ve exhausted my personal iPhone allotted supply - and resume blogging, sometime. Until then, disport yourselves accordingly.

Pending on Lake

736 Lake Avenue, $7.450 million. On the market 111 days, no price “adjustment”. 1925 home, most recently renovated in 2024, 3.4 acres in the RA-2 one, looks good.

Cos Cob Contract

10 Mill Pond Court, $1.850 million, 11 days on market. 1946 Cape, 3 bedrooms and one bath up, second bath (well, shower) on first floor. No basement, which is probably wise; 10 Mill Pond Court isn’t in the flood zone, but the water’s not so very far away — 100 yards or so — so the water table’s probably pretty high as well.

Odd moments in pricing

61 Center Drive, Old Greenwich, a 1970 split-level on the I-95 end of the street hit the market May 27, 2026 at $1.789 and had dropped to $1.649 million by September 3rd, when the owners fired their broker and brought in a new one, who dropped its price still further, to $1.549 September 7th, and there it remained; until yesterday, when they jacked it up to $1.575, presumably because some offers were coming in (or not, who knows?)

We all have different strategies, but if my own or my clients’ house had been on the market for 125 days and someone finally expressed an interest in it, I’d try to make a deal with them, instead of pulling a Lucy.

But that’s just me.

Good sledding hill, i suppose

Beware teenage fashion trends: they'll come back to bite you

More Proof LGBTQ Identification Is a Social Contagion

Young teens are self-identifying as lesbian, gay, and bisexual at decreasing rates, according to newly released CDC data for 2025. The drop in LGB identification was most notable among girls and younger high schoolers. From 2023-2025, the percentage of 9th graders identifying as LGB dropped from 17% to 11%, while among 12th graders, identification only dropped from 18% to 16% in the same time period. The percentage of high-school girls identifying as LGB dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2025. Among boys, LGB identification dropped from 9% to 7%. The largest decline was among 9th-grade girls, where LGB identification dropped from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025.

— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) October 1, 2026

(continued): From 2023-2025, the percentage of 9th graders identifying as LGB dropped from 17% to 11%, while among 12th graders, identification only dropped from 18% to 16% in the same time period. The percentage of high-school girls identifying as LGB dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2025. Among boys, LGB identification dropped from 9% to 7%. The largest decline was among 9th-grade girls, where LGB identification dropped from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025.

I posed the following question to Google’s AI:

Q, I remember reading a WSJ profile of a stock analyst from the 1980s era, in which she said that when she saw that (something like) 75% of Izod shirts were being purchased by teenaged girls, she dumped the stock immediately "because there's nothing more fickle and temporary than teenage girls' sense of fashion". Or something along those lines — it was long time ago. I do remember when the crocodiles disappeared from the Greenwich preppies’ chests back then, which was fine with me; never wore them, and thought they were just another example of stupid teen conformity. Leaving that personal opinion aside, is my memory about the demise of Izod accurate?

A. Your memory is spot on regarding both the sudden collapse of the brand and the exact logic Wall Street retail analysts use when evaluating fashion fads.

While the precise Wall Street Journal article text from that era isn't fully indexed here, your quote perfectly captures a timeless rule of retail investing: when a niche heritage brand becomes an over-saturated teenage fad, it is usually a sign that the brand has peaked and is about to crash. [1]

The actual corporate and financial mechanics behind why the alligator shirt suddenly vanished from upscale places like Greenwich align perfectly with your memory:

1. The "Diworseification" of Izod

During the 1970s and 1980s, Izod Lacoste wasn't owned by a fashion house—it was owned by General Mills (the cereal company). Legendary investor Peter Lynch famously used General Mills' ownership of Izod as a textbook example of "diworseification"—when a great company buys completely unrelated businesses they don’t understand.

2. Squeezing Growth from a Fad

When the preppy craze exploded in the early 1980s, General Mills saw massive profits and tried to aggressively sustain that growth.

• The Shift: To keep sales climbing, they shifted target demographics toward mainstream teenagers and young girls.

• The Mistake: They overproduced the shirts, dropped the price to around $35, and began selling them everywhere—including discount department stores and lower-end retailers. [1, 2, 3]

3. The Fickle Demise

Just as the analyst in your memory predicted, as soon as the alligator shirt became ubiquitous among suburban teenagers, it lost its exclusive, upper-class status symbol. The core affluent market abandoned it as "conformist," and the teenage demographic quickly moved on to the next trend (like Esprit or Benetton). Sales plummeted so severely that General Mills was forced to completely exit the clothing business and sell the brand off by 1985.

FWIW: So, who’s cashing in on this latest, temporary fashion? Hospitals, drug companies, and legions of social therapists/counselors who have a new revenue source to squeeze.

Snuck in under the wire

20 Rustic View Road. Listed at $2.395 million, sold for $2.7001. Built in 1963, renovated in 1995, no central a/c and — shocker — just 2 bathrooms to serve the 4 bedrooms (!). I’m kinda, sorta, kidding here: our family house built in 1948 had an attic fan, no a/c, and two bathrooms to serve 5 kids. Despite our near-constant, desperate appeals for help to the child welfare office, nothing was done, somehow, we survived. Dirty, and with permanently warped personalities, of course, but we did survive.

master bath

hall bath

It's a good start; now finish it

Counting Coup: IDF Has Removed 4,000 of 6,000 Oct. 7 Terrorists

Coming soon; the question is, will it be going soon?

86 Howard Road, 15,896 sq. ft, 7 bedrooms 8 baths (plus 3 1/2-baths), is nearing completion, and is offered today at $11.995 million — a million for each toilet?

Howard Road is way, way up in our northeast corner, a section of town that has historically been a fairly hard sell, commanding prices well below those in more popular neighborhoods; perhaps that’s changed.

Replaced a 1966 3, 402 sq. ft. “historic replica” (the listing didn’t say what it replicated) that I thought was rather nice, but markets move on. Put on the market in August, 2021 for $2.250 million, it sold the following February for $1.550.

But Trump!

From Instapundit

JOHN NOLTE: Rapey Cornell University Is a Democrat Problem, Not an American Problem.

The explosive Cornell University gang rape scandal has nothing to do with President Trump, nothing to do with Republicans, nothing to do with America, nothing to do with our culture, nothing to do with men, nothing to do with me, nothing to do with you, and everything to do with yet another failure of an institution run exclusively by leftists and Democrats.

If only former Republican Chris Christie had remembered that yesterday: NY Times’ ‘Journo’ Michelle Cottle and ‘Republican’ Chris Christie Try Pinning Cornell Case on Trump.

https://x.com/RobProvince/status/2106817588257062990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2106817588257062990%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=

AI Overview

Yes, Harvey Weinstein was a major supporter of and fundraiser for the Democratic Party for decades. [1, 2]

According to data reported by organizations like the Center for Responsive Politics and Business Insider, Weinstein donated and bundled over $2 million to Democratic candidates, committees, and progressive causes starting in the 1990s. [1, 2, 3]

Political Contributions and Ties

• Top Recipients: He contributed to numerous high-profile Democrats, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, and Cory Booker.

• Fundraising: Beyond personal donations, he served as a prolific fundraiser who hosted high-dollar campaign events for Democratic candidates. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]