"Team USA"? No thank you

The team of women who just won the soccer cup claim that they represent the United States, but why? Their team leader, who kneels, has vowed that she’ll “probably never sing the National Anthem again”, and she and a team mate tossed this country’s flag in the dirt at the conclusion of the game. New York City is throwing the team a parade, and that seems apt: I’m sure the sophisticated Manhattanites who will be cheering are just as ashamed to be American as the women are, so it will be a wonderful day of unity for all.

But leave me and my country out of it.

UPDATE: It is midfielder Kelly O’Hara who you see rushing in to retrieve the flag from the ground. Maybe President Trump can offer her a private tour of the White House

(And attention, all you losing teams from other countries: you might look into recruiting some transgenders. Hell, a Texas under-15 boys soccer team beat these women, easily.)

Somehow, the Mainstream Press has missed this

The media is going with the “Epstein, an associate of Donald Trump” lead, naturally, but it seems that Trump, who kicked his neighbor out of his Palm Beach resort when Epstein was caught soliciting underaged girls, wasn’t quite the friend that, say, Bill Clinton was.

Following a 2018 financial settlement between Florida attorney Bradley Edwards - who represented one of Epstein's accusers, only to be later sued by Epstein, Edwards claimed that Donald Trump was the 'only person' who provided assistance when Edwards served subpoenas and notices to high-profile individuals connected to Epstein. 

Edwards: The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only person who, in 2009 when I served a lot of subpoenas on a lot of people, or at least gave notice to some pretty connected people, that I want to talk to them, is the only person who picked up the phone and said, let’s just talk.  I’ll give you as much time as you want.  I’ll tell you what you need to know, and was very helpful, in the information that he gave, and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever, but had good information. That checked out and that helped us and we didn’t have to take a deposition of him in 2009.

Bad videos don't help

And neither do detached garages

The Mickster stumbled across this Sotheby’s video for 61 Park Avenue, Greenwich. I wonder if David Ogilvy saw it before he committed to closing his prestige brokerage and accepting a handhold on a rung lower down the ladder?

Despite (or because of) this video, it’s been a year since 61 Park hit the market at $3.695 million and it remains unsold at its latest price of $3.275. Is it possible that the market for joining the ranks of Nordic, white-wine-swilling yuppies is thinner than Sotheby’s thinks?

Riverside sale

2 Spruce Street, $1.625 million. Asked $1.679 when place on the market in March, went to contract in May, 50 days. The owner tried for $1.8ish a few years ago, but didn’t get it and so rented instead. $1.625 seems just about right, and there are a number of houses of this era (1948) in this neighborhood whose owners could use this as a comparable.

Just as a by the way, the buyers’ zip code indicates that they’ve moved from Ohio — it’s reassuring to know that someone is still willing to move to Connecticut.

Law of diminishing returns

Or no return at all. One Ivanhoe Lane started at $3.395 million, dropped to $2.595, and finally reports a contract. The great bubble of 2001-2008 is over, as is the day of making substantial improvements to a 1968 house and recouping your cost. Renovate a home for your family’s personal enjoyment, certainly, but you should understand that you probably won’t see that money again.

$2.7 million 2001

$3.150 2006

$2.574 2009

$2.595 (ask) 2019

Stop me if you've heard this before. Better yet, stop her.

Kamala Harris has a $100 billion plan to give blacks downpayment on homes.

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduced a $100 billion plan Saturday to help black people buy homes.

The California senator discussed the plan at Essence Fest, hosted by Essence Magazine, in New Orleans while calling on the nation to “deal with the racial wealth gap,” Politico reported.

The program would provide up to $25,000 in the form of grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help pay down payments or closing costs. The grants would help an estimated 4 million individuals or families who make up to $100,000, or $125,000, respectively, and are looking to rent or buy homes in high-cost areas.

“A typical black family has just $10 of wealth for every $100 held by a white family,” Harris told her audience at the festival. “So we must right that wrong and, after generations of discrimination, give black families a real shot at homeownership — historically one of the most powerful drivers of wealth in our country.”

I’m so old that I remember when the last attempt to put people into houses they couldn’t afford went awry; when was that, eleven years ago? The lesson that should have been learned then, but obviously wasn’t, was that owning a nice house in a good neighborhood doesn’t automatically instill habits of thrift, hard work and a culture that values both. Rather, the house is the result of those virtues, not the cause. Harris and her friends are really no more sophisticated or knowledgable than the most primitive Pacific Island cargo cult, and the results of their efforts will be just as futile though, to be fair, the islanders never stole $100 billion from their neighbors to fund their fallacy. .

Marathon cheater now ruled to have finished dead last

by popular demand

Dr. Frank Maza, whose wicked exploits are discussed below, has been found dead in the Los Angeles River.

The 70-year-old doctor who broke the Los Angeles Marathon record for his age group, then was disqualified for cheating, has been found dead in a California river. 

Frank Meza's body was discovered in the Los Angeles River in the Cypress Park area on Thursday, a source told Eyewitness News.

The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a report of a body lying in shallow water shortly before 10am.

Officials said the man's cause of death is not suspected to be from drowning. 

What to do about results from the last race? There is a solution:

"Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance" — David Mamet

LA Marathon disqualifies 70-year-old for cheating.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Marathon disqualified 70-year-old runner Frank Meza, saying video shows he left the course during his record-setting performance in March and that his time during one stretch was so fast it was “impossible,” according to a report Monday.

Meza has repeatedly denied cheating and did so again on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“I didn’t cut the course,” he said.

Some in the running community have questioned his finish in 2 hours 53 minutes 10 seconds — the fastest ever for a man his age.

Quick sale

15 Greenbriar Lane, discussed here when it went to contract, has closed at $2.375 million. Despite or perhaps because of its quirkiness, the expected result when an architect designs his own house to suit himself, the house spent just 66 days on the market. I’m not surprised that someone liked the house — I found it appealing, in its own way — but that short stay on the market was surely helped by the pricing: $2.495 million, on a property appraised by the town at $3.850.

That appraisal has been proved to be overly optimistic, but the selling price looks good, regardless.

Fifty shades of grey

SQUARE SHUTTERS, BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

11 Partridge Hollow Road cut its price to $5.150 million today. That’s an improvement over the $6.695 million sought in 2015, when this house was newly-built, but it may be a while before these owners find a buyer with the same bold fearlessness they themselves displayed when they chose to build so far out of town. Regardless, it’s a nice house, and I’m sure someone will come along, eventually, and relieve the owners of possession. What I found amusing is that a 2013 Greenwich Magazine puff piece on an earlier construction project by this couple (they build, but don’t seem to stay for long, if they ever move in at all), quoted their decorator on the owners’ tastes:

“They’re not afraid to take chances with color,” says the designer. “It’s wonderful; it’s a bonus. They love gray. In New York they had an entire room covered in gray flannel and they wanted to keep it pivotal in the new house.”

The decorator was right: pictures of that house show that it was in fact almost exclusively painted grey. And so is this one. I’m not sure how one reconciles “not afraid to take chances with color” with such a neutral color scheme, but perhaps these owners are ex-Navy. My own father was, and he taught me the timeless naval adage,

“If it moves, salute it.

If it doesn’t move, pick it up.

If you can’t pick it up, paint it grey.”

I don’t think this house is moving anywhere quickly, and any heavy lifting will only be found in the process of finding a buyer, so … get out the paint.

GREY GOES ON SAFARI