Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
25 Fox Run Lane, snickered at here back in September, has sold for $3,262,500, after initially asking $4.899. Owners paid $4.5 in 2005.
And that land at Sabine Farm, priced at $10.1 million in 2017, has sold for $5.2 million. I think they were lucky to get that much.
3 Hill Road, now $3.5 million, down from last April’s price of $4.495. The owners paid $4.5 for it in 2011, a period when most of us thought that Greenwich prices had stabilized after their free fall between 2007 and 2010. We were wrong.
Out of curiosity I just looked up the active inventory of mid-country homes, Central Middle School district, priced between $3.250 and $3.750, and there are 27 of them (and 39, if you include Western School district), many having been on the market for over two years. If you’re in the market for mid-country homes at, say, $2.5 million, this category might be worth exploring, because surely a few of these owners are ready to throw in the towel.
You guys are on your own
Idexx Laboratories Inc. has evaluated thousands of canine and feline specimens during its validation of a new veterinary test system for the COVID-19 virus, more commonly known as the coronavirus, and it has some good news for pet owners.
The Westbrook-based veterinary diagnostics company said it has seen no positive results in either cats or dogs, confirming earlier assessments that the most popular household pets cannot contract the disease.
“These new test results align with the current expert understanding that COVID-19 is primarily transmitted person-to-person and supports the recommendation against testing pets for the COVID-19 virus,” the company said in a news release. “For dogs or cats presenting with respiratory signs, the recommendation is to contact a veterinarian to test for more common respiratory pathogens.”
Of course, there are always some neurotic pet owners …
18 Tower Lane, asking $3.195 million. It’s been on since June, whereas it sold for full price: $3.295, in just 17 days in 2015. Either way, it’s a nice house in a great neighborhood.
FWIW’s Expert from Doom states flatly that we will see “ 45 million cases in the United States, 560,000 hospitalizations, and 46,000 fatalities.” OMG, call up the cameras, call out the Marines!
Oh, wait, those are the CDC’s figures for this year’s flu season, from October to February 23, 2010. Last year 61,000 Americans died from the same cause, yet the world’s economy didn’t collapse, the country wasn’t shuttered, and the toilet paper supply continued unabated. What a difference a media can make.
Regardless of what eventually happens with our new pet flu, it is providing an incredible taste of what will happen when something serious like an EMP destroys the country’s electrical grid and the country really does close down for good. Will we use this as a learning opportunity and begin strengthening the grid, as has been urged for decades? Yes, I’m kidding.
23 Boulder Brook, an older, but renovated home in excellent shape, 5 baths, 6,000 sq.ft. on an acre+, priced at $2.995 million, has a contract after 23 days. The price is not out of line with previous sales on Boulder — it’s a nice street — but the quick contract is a little surprising, but encouraging.
16 Greenbriar, off Rogues Hill and priced at $2.8 million, is reported pending. Owners paid $3.995 for it in 2005 and have been trying to sell it since June 2016, when they started at $4.250. Not a bad house; in fact, after its last price cut I suggested to a client that we take a look at it. He wasn’t interested but obviously someone else was and liked what he saw.
Richard Blumethal, veteran and science guy
Blumenthal shocked and dismayed that the flu is still with us.
“I am appalled and astonished that we have lost a critical two months. There’s still no plan, no strategy for testing, for ventilators, for the basics required for people to survive.”
U.S. Regulators approve Roche’s new and faster Corona Virus test
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche announced Friday it had received emergency approval from US regulators for a new and much faster test for diagnosing the deadly new coronavirus.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to commercialise the SARS-CoV-2 Test to detect the virus that has sparked the global COVID-19 pandemic, Roche said in a statement.
The test can be run in high volumes on fully automated equipment, Roche said, suggesting it could provide more results far faster than other tests available.
"We are increasing the speed definitely by a factor of 10," Thomas Schinecker, head of Roche's diagnostics unit, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Widespread testing is essential in the race to rein in the spread of the virus, which has so far infected more than 130,000 people and killed nearly 5,000 worldwide.
The new Roche tests, which will also now be available in markets that accept the European CE-mark certification, are run on Roche's widely available cobas 6800/8800 systems and can provide results within 3.5 hours, the company said.
In a 24-hour period, the largest machines can provide results on up to 4,128 tests, it said.
Roche said it would have millions of tests available each month, and that it was committed to pushing the limits of its production capacity and delivering as many tests as possible.
While Big Pharma was doing what the socialists can’t, Ol Joe spent yesterday blasting Trump’s response to the Foo Flu and then plagiarized Trump’s own plan
Whole Food shopper
Filthy reusables, never very smart, pose an even greater danger now
John Tierney:
TO AVOID COVID-19 AND OTHER ILLNESSES, DON’T USE “SUSTAINABLE” GROCERY BAGS: Greening Our Way to Infection. The campaign to eliminate single-use plastic bags at the supermarket could prove deadly during the coronavirus outbreak. It has forced shoppers to switch to reusable tote bags that have proved quite “sustainable” for viruses and bacteria from food. The pathogens can linger for days — and then be spread all over the supermarket, especially at the checkout counter. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that the pathogens in the bags are a serious public-health hazard unless grocery shoppers wash the bags regularly, which few people do.
[And the only safe way to wash these bags is in a washing machine; hand-washing won’t work, because of the crevasses and folds in the material. 97% of Americans don’t wash the bags at all, and of the few who do wash them,the number who use washing machines is infinitesimal, which is a good thing for our energy consuption: Bags wear out after 6-7 runs through the laundry, yet consume 100X more energy to produce than plastic one-timers.]
The plastic-bag bans have never made any sense, because the replacement bags are harmful not only to people but also to the environment, as I’ve written. I compared the bag bans to medieval sumptuary laws — which forbade commoners from wearing certain clothes or using certain products that offended their social superiors — but perhaps I was unfair to the medieval rulers who made the laws. At least their edicts didn’t sicken or kill their subjects.
This would be an excellent opportunity for self-selection; greens can use their filthy bags and die, the rest of us will bury the poor, earnest dears and get on with our lives, except in towns where the use of sterile plastic bags is prohibited, like Greenwich. Oh well.
Reusable cups have been banned at Starbucks’ and other woke companies’ stores, now it’s the hemp bag that should go. Will reusable straws be next? Ironically, for all the hysteria it’s engendered, this Wu Hu Floo may mark a turning point in a return to common sense. At least for the 10% of the population still alive in May, when all this frenzied panic has died.
My country first. Or thereabouts — no lower than second, anyway, or maybe third
Pelosi attempted to get abortion funding into Whu Hoo Floo emergency spending bill. And she and her pals are still at it, adding Christmas ornament spending goodies to the bill they’re drafting. Politicians of both parties do this, attaching various pork items to seemingly-veto-proof spending bills, but it’s disheartening to learn that they can’t stop the practice, even just this once, during a true national emergency. Regardless of one’s position on abortion, pro or con, this rush to take political advantage of a panic is disgusting.
Twain said it best: “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
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