Feel good story of the day

Ow?

Squash tournament winners awarded vibrators as prizes

The sore winners were muffed — there’s just no pleasuring some folks.

Trump Derangement madness reaches new peak

You decide! Save me!

Nevada is the latest state to sign on to abolishing the Electoral College

Assembly Bill 186, which passed the Senate on a 12-8 vote, would bring Nevada into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement between participating states to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote.

If signed as expected by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, Nevada would become the 16th jurisdiction to join the compact, along with 14 states and the District of Columbia. The compact would take effect after states totaling 270 electoral votes, and with Nevada, the total would reach 195.

While the effort has been billed by organizers as bipartisan, Democrats have embraced the NPV in the aftermath of President Trump’s 2016 victory, which saw the Republican win the electoral vote but not the popular vote.

Leftist groups like Common Cause, Indivisible and Public Citizen cheered the Nevada vote.

This crazed impulse to turn control of national elections to the Eastern and Western seaboard states began with Buh II’s victory, but it reached fever peak with Trump’s victory. It’s easy to understand why the coastal elites feel that they are uniquely qualified to select our leaders, but even in obscure backwaters like Maine Democrats are voluntarily ceding that power to their betters, and that’s discouraging.

I don’t think our country will survive in recognizable form another two decades.

This seems a tad aggressive

25 South End Court

25 South End Court, Old Greenwich, is new to the market today and priced at $1.799 million. That’s too high to attract a builder looking for land, and as a residence, my personal feeling is that there are better 1953 houses out there available for less. South End’s a quiet little dead end, and very convenient to OG School, the train and the Village itself, but in this case, the town’s appraisal at $1.270 might be closer to the mark.

We’ll see.

That last price cut worked its magic

135 Doubling Road, $3.795 million, is reported as pending. I wrote about the place on May 1st, when it took what turned out to be its last cut, and from the comments, most readers appreciated its 1915 charm and the care (and money) lavished on this 1915 carriage house.

These sellers paid $5.5 million for it in 2005, so with the cost of renovations added on, it’s been an expensive ownership, but that’s true for almost any house purchased back then.

Congratulations to listing agent Julie Burke for persevering and bringing this home.

Cognewaugh contract

145 Cognewaugh Road, asking $1.795. The sellers looked for $2.495 for it back in 2016, but couldn’t get it; this price seems to have done the trick. The owners paid $2.350 for it in 2006 and completed some extensive renovations in 2012, which explains that 2016 target, but 2006 was a different era.

I'll see your Bobby Bare and raise you double

Maine bear relocated, travels 1,000 miles to get back home.

CONCORD, N.H. — A bear whose life was spared two years ago by New Hampshire’s governor has returned to her home turf near Dartmouth College after traveling thousands of miles since her relocation last June.

The state’s Fish and Game Department had decided to euthanize the female black bear and three of her young offspring in 2017 after repeated problems with them feeding from trash and bird feeders culminated with two bears entering a home in Hanover. But after a public outcry, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu ordered the animals relocated instead.

….. She [Mama Bear, “Mink”] was tagged, fitted with a tracking collar and moved about 120 miles north to a sparsely populated location near the Canadian border.

But last week, Mink made it back to Hanover after traveling a looping route through New Hampshire and Vermont. Andrew Timmins, the bear project leader with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, said Monday that he’s been in regular contact with the governor’s office and a local bear rehabilitator — and all agree there’s no need to take further action at this time.

“This bear has shown us where she wants to be, so let’s see if we can do a better job coexisting with her by being more vigilant with food attractants,” Timmins said.

…. “My sense is she’ll wander off and find another bear to hang out with,” said Sununu, who stands by his decision to intervene.

Wow; just wow

So, pretty much like summer camp, then.

Williams College and the ignorant idiots who attend it

Assertions about World War II were even more disturbing. One student acknowledged the “horrible conditions that Jewish people experienced” during the Holocaust, but claimed that Palestinians currently were “even experiencing worse.” Why? Unlike the seemingly unending Israeli occupation of the West Bank, “the purpose of these [World War II] ghettos were basically to control, segregate, and separate the Jewish people for short periods of time.”

Schools such as Williams long ago abandoned required courses in Western civilization or European history. Nonetheless, a student at one of the nation’s best colleges publicly describing the World War II experience of European Jews as even partly a short-term problem of living in ghettos is shocking. That other Williams students could take from such an assertion a possible reason to avoid recognizing a Jewish campus group is remarkable.

Nothing wrong with this beauty except location, and time on market

310 Round Hill Road is back, with a new agent, Joe Barbieri, and a new price, $3.495 million. That seems like a reasonable price for this 1924 home, but it’s just (very) near the Meritt, and it’s been kicking around on the market; mostly on, occasionally off, since May, 2014, when David Ogilvy launched it at $5.8. Agents can talk ourselves blue in the face explaining to clients that the reason no one’s wanted a particular house up to now is that it was overpriced, period, but the stigma remains: “if no one else wants it, why should I?”

Makes for a tough sell.

Of course, if the seller were to toss this into the deal, it could only help

Nice flip

15 Dingletown Road sells for $2.170 million after just 29 days on the market. The sellers paid $1.290 (on an original, delusional price of $1.895) in December, 2016 and completely redid it, expanding it, replacing the mechanicals, added central a/c, a new kitchen, bathrooms, etc. The market for move-in houses in this price range remains strong.

The house “as was” can be seen here: I showed it several times back in 2003 and wasn’t impressed, yet it still sold that year for $1.750. Those were great times for homeowners looking to pull out of Dodge.

Circa January, 2017

And the high end gets a new addition

23 Smith Road, $39.5 million, six acres of direct waterfront with house and outbuildings. While the property isn’t officially within the Belle Haven Association’s boundaries, I’m sure that the purchaser of this place will, barring the most egregious “non-clubbable” personality, have no problem joining his peers down the street. And it’s been my experience that even non-clubbables get admitted to institutions you wouldn’t expect would have them; business ties trump social graces, usually.

So, is this the right price? Time will tell, and I wouldn’t expect a buyer to pull up to that dock this very summer, but you never know; this kind of waterfront and location is practically unique, and someone in water wings could well be floating just offshore, waiting for this opportunity.

Sally Maloney’s listing, which can only help its prospects.