One contract, two sales

14 Tinker Lane

14 Tinker Lane ($3.8 million) contract after 21 days. No huge surprise here, as it’s a nice house on beautiful property and sited at the end of Tinker, well away from the Merritt Parkway; some of the properties closer to Lake can’t claim the same thing. This sold for $3.764 million in 2015 for $3.764 after just 40 days, so this would seem to be less of a COVID phenomenon and more of a regular, decent-house-in-Greenwich sale.

206 Stanwich Road

206 Stanwich, new construction discussed here earlier when it went to contract back in May, has closed at $5.650 million. Maybe a beneficiary of Kung Flu, it was under contract after 67 days.

7 Loch Lane

And 7 Loch Lane has sold, for $6.9 million. Someone probably made money here, but not the original builder, who paid $2.950 for the land in 2004, began construction of this monstrosity, and almost immediately ran into money difficulties. It was listed for some years at $13.950 million, but potential buyers were likely deterred by the fact that the project had been abandoned, and unpersuaded by the builder’s promise that he’d come back and finish the work if they paid him.

In any event, it was the bank who bought it, for itself, sold it to a third party who completed it and has now sold it. I’m surprised someone took the plunge here; aside from the design, which some might find off-putting, the place sat empty and open to the weather for over a decade, which is never good for a building. It obviously passed inspection, but I personally would have been wary.

But the neighbors on Loch Lane must be delighted to see it finished and occupied, even if some were probably hoping it would just disappear and something different erected in its place.

Circa 2010

There's a reason 79-year-olds shouldn't be in charge

Dr. Fauci now thinks we should add goggles to our Kung Flu costumes.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who recently violated Washington, D.C.’s, mask mandate by going maskless during the Nationals season opener, is now suggesting that Americans wear goggles or face shields for extra protection against COVID-19.

“If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it,” Fauci told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. When asked if we may end up getting to a point where doing so will be recommended, Fauci responded, “It might, if you really want perfect protection of the mucosal surfaces.”

Dr. Fauci, age 79, is in a higher-risk group but has never been seen wearing goggles or a face shield for extra protection against COVID-19.

To be fair, Fauci’s ability to guide a meaningful response to an epidemic has long been questioned, as this open letter to Dr. Doom from Larry Kramer in 1988 attests:

I have been screaming at the National Institutes of Health since I first visited your Animal House of Horrors in 1984. I called you monsters then and I called you idiots in my play, The Normal Heart, and now I call you murderers.

You are responsible for supervising all government-funded AIDS treatment research programs. In the name of right, you make decisions that cost the lives of others. I call that murder.

At hearings on April 29 before Representative Ted Weiss and his House Subcommittee on Human Resources, after almost eight years of the worst epidemic in modern history, perhaps to be the worst in all history, you were pummeled into admitting publicly what some of us have been claiming since you took over three years ago.

You admitted that you are an incompetent idiot.

Over the past four years, $374 million has been allocated for AIDS treatment research. You were in charge of spending much of that money.

It doesn’t take a genius to set up a nationwide network of testing sites, commence a small number of moderately sized treatment efficacy tests on a population desperate to participate in them, import any and all interesting drugs (now numbering approximately 110) from around the world for inclusion in these tests at these sites, and swiftly get into circulation anything that remotely passes muster. Yet, after three years, you have established only a system of waste, chaos, and uselessness.

So maybe it’snot just age; nevertheless, time to put this near-octogenarian out to pasture alongside any other 79-year-olds in or seeking national office.

Let 'em sweat in the dark

They’re hot, we’ll put ‘em in nursing homes

De Blasio warns the people who voted for him to prepare for major blackouts. Hahahaha

Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that parts of southern Brooklyn are on the brink of massive power outages Thursday — as he directed residents to conserve energy “as much as possible” amid the fourth day of a sweltering heat wave.

Con Edison issued the warning Thursday morning that the electrical supply in Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, South Park Slope, Greenwood and Sunset Park is currently in danger.

“There is a problem in southern Brooklyn,” Hizzoner said at his daily press briefing. “We’ve got to protect our electricity supply for all New Yorkers.”

De Blasio advised “avoiding using major appliances,” including washers, dryers and microwaves and limiting the use of air conditioners “as much as possible.”

“Everyone please take this warning seriously. Please act on it,” he said. “We will push Con Ed hard to resolve this situation quickly.”

The power issues come as temperatures will hit a sweltering 90+ degrees again Thursday.

Just as we (I, at least) cheer as Seattle and Portland burn, we can shrug our shoulders at idiot New Yorkers’ plight. They put De Blasio and Cuomo in power and cheered as Indian Point Reactor 2 was shut down, natural gas pipelines stymied, and Con Ed attacked and thwarted in its every attempt to keep the city supplied with energy. The people demanded either imaginary “green energy” or nothing at all, and that’s what they’re getting.

Connecticut’s next, by the way, if you haven’t been following the Hartford Follies.

And having just said I rarely pay attention to new listings, here's one that caught my eye

24 Thunder Mountain Road, new construction, $7.495 million. I was involved in the land sale here some years back and spent a lot of time on the lot. It’s very special: private, high up from the road (and any Merritt Parkway noise), and the views, even at ground level were spectacular, overlooking the town and down to Long Island Sound. Those views must be even better two-stories up.

Design’s always a matter of personal taste of course, but I like the lines of this one, and it certainly isn’t the pseudo-neo-post-Victorian-Colonial style that’s afflicted the town these past 30-years. That’s to be encouraged.

Hmmm — there's potential here, maybe

I usually pay just glancing notice to new listings on the MLS feed because as a general rule they’re going to be overpriced, and will need some mellowing before they’re worth paying attention to. But “new” listings that are returning at a lower price than they wore during their initial run are more interesting. 8-14 Fox Run Lane, for instance, is back today, priced at $3.995 million, which is a real improvement over its 2017 price of $5.995.

That might still be too high, but the property is 7.92 acres and possibly sub-dividable, because the land is comprised of two separate lots of 5.92 and 2 acres, respectively (you never want to assume that a property can be subdivided merely because there are two separate parcels; zoning regs, set-back requirements, perhaps the desirability of reconfiguring the total acreage, are just some of the considerations, and you’ll want to consult with a surveyor and, probably, a land-use lawyer before parting with any real money).

The house itself is probably not worth saving, because it would take millions to renovate and you’d still end up with a style of house that’s as popular these days as brown furniture, which is to say not popular at all. Wasted effort.

But two building lots off Zaccheus Mead at, let’s say, $1.5 each might be a deal; you could even build new on one lot and keep the second as a land bank, so to speak.

It has its own pool, fortunately

40 Otter Rock Drive, Belle Haven ($7.950) has a contract. It started at $8.950 a year ago before dropping to this price, but I think the driving force in the present market is COVID panic, so the price cut was probably of less significance here than it would have been before Bat Soup Flu arrived on our shores.

GOP, Democrats, same power seekers, though the GOP may be even less principled

David French, NR writer, desperate, leg-humping tool of the Left

The Lincoln Project, a band of pseudo-conservatives seeking a return to power, is pouring millions of dollars in senate races to switch the majority back to the Democrats. These aren’t just Never-Trumpers, mind you, they’re going after moderate Republicans too: they’ve even targeted Maine’s Susan Collins, to the tune of a million dollars so far, and counting. And Collins is just on of ten Republican senators they’re determined to defeat. So determined, they’ve even contributed $750,000 to the Democratic party itself. And they call themselves Republicans.

Stephen Kruiser sums them up nicely: Never Trumpers Leg-Hump Every Leftist Narrative Just to Make Friends

We’re on a journey today to the not-too-distant past. A past when moderate squish Republicans could play nice with real conservatives just to thwart the Democrats.

A time, my friends, before Never Trump.

Yes, it was a brief union. When the Tea Party movement was started by real conservatives, its success made it attractive to a host of moderate Republican grifters who wanted to hang out with us because we threw better parties. Grifters who would one day self-identify as “Never Trump.”

A sad little group, the Never-Trump kids are. They go through life balling their fists, stomping their feet, and being mad at all the wrong things. They turn on their friends to hang out with the kids who they’ve ridiculously misidentified as the popular crowd.

Never Trump began in 2016 when a bunch of pasty and doughy Republican soy boys realized they weren’t ever going to get anyone to clap for Jeb! Bush. Their original intention was to derail any hope of Donald Trump getting elected. They were aiding and abetting the Hillary Clinton campaign and they were doing it under the false pretense of being principled.

In reality, the Never-Trump crowd is one of the least principled groups in the history of American politics, which is a truly bottom-feeding feat. They’re all about the money, and they are making piles of it because there is a lot of gold in them thar turncoat hills.

.…As we get closer to the election all of the Never-Trump types will be abasing themselves at the feet of their leftist masters in the hope of a higher place in the new kingdom.

Conyers Farm sale

50 Guards Road has continued its long decline by selling for $4.050 million, three years after being purchased for $4.5 (in 2017 — it had started at $7.995 in 2013). The same property sold for $5.75 in 20000 and $5.2 in 1998.

Although this was the first house built at Conyers and intended as a model for the rest, the style was outdated before it was completed: Conyers Farm buyers wanted far larger, more ostentatious homes, else what was the use of getting rich? So today it’s 10-acres of a beautiful yard and an obsolete structure. Who knows what a building lot up here will be worth in 2022; probably less.

And the elephant graveyard continues to empty

Five years on, 544 North Street has sold for $2.450 million. The owners paid $3.725 for it in 2004, made some improvements and have been trying to sell it since May 2015, when they began at $3.995. Some things were just never meant to happen.

Lilliputians take on their better.

Mr. “Guam’s gonna tip over” has a statement to make