Wasn't I just speaking about truth in advertising?
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Now if we can just get Dr. Fauci in the same garb, we can make some progress.
This is why we can't have nice things
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Nothing better to do with his time
Why is trying to do this? First, because he thinks he can, and where’s the fun in being Mayor if you can’t act like the all-powerful top banana? See, eg, lockdown, NYC, March 2020 - continuing
But there’s also this: blackmail.
… [A] well-connected opposition group, which appears to be using language eerily familiar to that of the revolt movement that scuttled the city’s development deal with Amazon.
“These are disturbing new revelations about a once-in-a-generation sale of City-owned land,” one person inside the opposition group told The Post. “It is urgently important that any deal includes a generous, comprehensive community benefits package that actually serves the people of the surrounding neighborhood and all of New York City.”
A key player opposing Cohen is State Senator Jessica Ramos, who was also a vocal player in the Amazon fiasco. Sources confirm that Ramos has been in contact with City Hall about the Mets sale.
And this being New York City, a soupçon of race consciousness:
A key player opposing Cohen is State Senator Jessica Ramos, who was also a vocal player in the Amazon fiasco. Sources confirm that Ramos has been in contact with City Hall about the Mets sale.
Ramos also penned an op-ed in July endorsing the sale of the Mets to the group led by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez.
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At least the call for free college tuition acknowledges its actual worth
Oct 28, 2020
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And here's a renovation that paid off
Oct 28, 2020
Oct 28, 2020
Well, maybe the Back Country is stirring to life
Oct 28, 2020
How is this suit even possible?
Oct 28, 2020
And now for something completely different: real estate
Oct 28, 2020
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At least the call for free college tuition acknowledges its actual worth
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Sociology studies victim
University prof says beer is racist
From the Department of You’ve Got to Be Freaking Kidding Me:
David L. Brunsma, a professor in Virginia Tech’s department of sociology, claimed that both beer and the phrase “the American people” are racist in a recent book and tweet, respectively.
The book, co-authored by Burnsma and titled Beer and Racism: How Beer Became White, Why It Matters, and the Movements to Change It, claims to provide a “critical and interdisciplinary path to examine and understand the racial dynamics in the craft beer industry and the popular consumption of beer” according to its description.
“From the racist marketing of malt liquor to the bearded-white-dude culture of craft beer, readers will never look at a frothy pint the same after reading Beer and Racism.”
Not to be outdone,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor says calling composers by their surnames is racist
A music theory professor argued In an article published Saturday that referring to famous composers by only their last names is a form of white supremacy that needs to be remedied.
Chris White, who teachers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggested that well-known composers like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, ought to be referred to by their full names so as to put them on an equal footing with lesser-known composers.
Writing in Slate, [where else?] White noted how many people do not notice when “’ traditional’ white male composers are introduced with only surnames,” while “everyone else” – i.e., “women and composers of color” – are referred to by their full name.
Putting to the side the questions of why VT Tech even has a sociology department, and how a white dude actually named White feels qualified to lecture anyone about white supremacy, I’ll point out that these two, frivolous airheads are drawing salaries paid for by the taxpayers of their respective states, wasting their students’ time, and expelling deadly, warming CO2 with their every breath, all while scribbling noxious nonsense that will be published in academic journals and read by no one (go ahead, I dare you to diagram that sentence).
Free tuition? If the value of a commodity is at least partly based on what people pay for it, the Democrats may have inadvertently stumbled onto a platform promise that quailfies for a truth in advertising award.
Saaaay, you don't suppose ...
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422 N. Maple Avenue, which was built sideways in 2009 on a long, narrow lot, sat unloved and unwanted from April 2019, when it started at $4.750, and had dropped all the way down to $4.295 by this past September when a contract was announced. Today it was reported closed at $4.640. That’s still less than the $4.850 these sellers paid in 2013, but a price war kicking things up $345K over ask? Wild.
Was the sudden appearance of multiple buyers attributable to COVID panic? Probably. Without, of course, implying anything improper, I’ll just note that the sellers have Chinese surnames. It’s impossible to think that anyone would brew up a deadly virus in a laboratory all the way across the world and bring it over here just to get bailed out of an unfortunate property purchase. Impossible, I say.
But it’s an ironic coincidence, no?
Hang 'em high
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Would we lie to you?
Cruz blisters Twitter’s Dorsey
The giants of social media from Twitter, Google/YouTube, and Facebook were hauled in front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about the censorship of the New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s “laptop from Hell.”
Facebook and Twitter were caught limiting the reach of the article, which prompted a Senate inquiry. Ted Cruz came out swinging, calling Twitter “the biggest threat to free and fair elections” facing America today. He also set Jack Dorsey’s overlong beard on fire with this blistering observation about the power of Twitter to police speech in America.
“Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear, and why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC, silencing the views to the contrary of your political beliefs?” Cruz asked in one of the more heated exchanges of the hearing.
“The New York Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton,” said Cruz. “And your position is that you can sit in Silicon Valley and demand that the media— that you can tell them what stories they can publish and you can tell the American public what stories they can hear, is that right?”
Dorsey denied it all and claimed he didn’t do what we all saw him do. The New York Post is still blocked from posting on Twitter because they refuse to delete the original tweet that got them in trouble in the first place. But why should they delete it? Dorsey admits that blocking it was a mistake. We need more answers.
Dorsey did not come off as credible in any way during the hearing. In fact, while testifying, the New York Post fact-checked him on the spot and found him to be lying.
I said yesterday that Twitter and Facebook made a mistake in 2009 rejecting the Obam-era FTC’s offer of a mild consent agreement; they’d counted on Republican free-market/free speech champions to protect them, but they burned that bridge over these past four years and especially and irrevocably with this Biden cover up.
And here's a renovation that paid off
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Rescued from its dotage
313 Stanwich Road, on the market for 23 days, asked $7.495 million and has sold for $7.3. The sellers paid $3.255 million in 2011 for this still-charming, but shabby-genteel 1928 home and totally renovated it, added 1,000 sq. feet to make it a more comfortable snuggery of 10,212, and brought in a landscaper.
It was a vast improvement of what had been allowed to decline over the years, and the quick sale of this new rejuvenated version reflects that.
A flip that worked
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As renovated
34 Montgomery Lane, asking $1.575 million, is under contract.
Built in 1965, it was originally listed as land for $1.150 million in 2019 and sold to a builder that May for $985,000. You can see that listing, with photos, here.
The builders completely renovated it: new roof, windows, mechanicals, kitchen, baths, paint, etc. and put it back up for sale last December at $1.575. They stuck to that price for 327 days and depending on its final sale price, it appears that their patience paid off. If they’re getting anything close to their asking price, then allowing for 7% transaction costs (commissions, taxes, lawyers, and such) then they had about $480,000 to play with, after deducting the purchase cost of the original structure. The improvements were substantial, but the builders set the price, so they must have known what they needed to get to make an acceptable profit, and it seems that they have. Good for them; it’s a nicely done project.
2019 edition
Well, maybe the Back Country is stirring to life
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22 Aiken Road, priced at $3.950 million, reports a contract after just 50 days on the market.
Like most of the streets up there in our far north, Aiken has been pretty much dormant in the past years, so maybe this is a beginning. 13 Aiken Road is still available at $4.250 million, but there may be no particular rush there; it started at $10 million in 2005, and is still with us.
But still, this is the second sale on Aiken this year, so that’s encouraging. 38 Aiken sold in June for $3.2 million, hooray! Unfortunately for the owner, she’d paid $6.9 for it in 2002, and had it on the market seven years, after beginning at $6.995 in 2013. But a sale’s a sale, eh?
Addendum: 38 Aiken was sold to the buyer by Marge Rowe, a renowned figure in Greenwich real estate who was famous for sheperding her clients around town in her Rolls Royce. I always suspected that Marge kept her wealthy clients by listing and selling their houses at wildly-inflated prices. David Ogilvy in a Rolls.
And that was possible back then because there was no internet and not even a central repository of prices; buyers were at the mercy of their agent, who selected which houses she’d show them, and was their sole advisor on values. I entered this racket back in 2003 just as the Greenwich MLS went online and made sale histories and selling prices available to its members. I shared that information with my customers, some agents did not, until sites like Realtor.com and Zillow went around the MLS wall and published the data for all the great unwashed to see.
But Rowe, Ogilvy et al were right to be alarmed; prices did drop and have dropped, as information became free and customers could compare houses for themselves. And in thoe legend’s defense, they were also right, legally, in shielding their buyer clients from that information. Under the laws of principle/agency, both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent were considered to owe a fiduciary duty to the owner; the buyer’s agent was, again, legally, treated as a subagent of the listing agent, and the authority to represent a property flowed through and down from the listing agent.
That principle was honored in the breach; buyer’s agents formed a relationship with their buyers, and most of them treated them their pinciple rather than the owner. The law was finally changed around 2002-2003 to reflect this reality and created the legal entity of a a ”buyer’s representative”, enabling buyer’s agents to fully represent their clients: ferriting out court cases, impending forecloaures, divorce proccedings, etc. — anything that might strengthen a buyer’s negotiating position.
So, between ending the realtors’ monopoly on price infomation, and the legal recognition that buyer’s reps owed a fiduciary duty to their client, not the owner, prices have fallen; competition will do that, and that’s been good for buyers, if not for sellers. Of course, buyers become sellers, sooner or later, and then the advantages of ths new system may not seem so positive, but, there it is.
(apologies for typos — I’m rushing out the door. I’ll spell check on my return.)
How is this suit even possible?
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Put me in the game, judge, put me in the game!
Individual self-identifying as female sues to compel school district to form all-girl football teams
[HIGH SCHOOL FEMALE FOOTBALL STAR SAM GORDON] sued her school district and two others for refusing to create a girls’ football program under Title IX, saying many girls like her don’t feel comfortable playing with boys and some are even harassed. One player who testified said she was forced to change in the boys’ locker room at away games and often faced discriminatory treatment by her male coach and teammates.
But plenty of girls want to play, Gordon said, pointing to an all-female league she started with her father six years ago that’s drawn hundreds of girls from the Salt Lake City area.
NFL “mentor” Jen Welter chimes in:
Football is considered “America’s game,” but it is one of few sports that doesn’t have gender parity at any level, from the peewees to the pros, in terms of opportunity or compensation, Welter said.
WTF? Uncomfortable using the boy’s locker room? Gender parity, for chrissake? We follow science in this country, and science says that only seriously disturbed individuals object to sharing showers and bathrooms with persons who enjoy different genitalia, and science says that gender is a meaningless social construct, invented purposefully and solely to oppress persons who wear dungarees and play with Barbies.
No mention is made of the potential harm that might occur when a 5’3” , 102-lb person identifying as a fullback collides with a 6’1”, 275-lb person who identifies as a running back, but that’s understandable — our courts, including those here in Connecticut, have already ruled that the laws of physics are also social constructs, tainted by sexism, weightism and, probably racism, somehow. So that’d be a non-starter.
I’m dismayed that this lawsuit survived a summary judgment motion for dismissal.
And now for something completely different: real estate
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A friend has sent along this article on Greenwich’s (and Palm Beach’s past. Fun read.
The Gilded Age: Greenwich & Palm Beach
Although Ocean Boulevard’s recent nine-figure real estate sales overshadow Indian Road or John Street asking prices, in 1903 it was Greenwich’s “salubrious ground where champagne flowed …” having reimagined itself to be somewhere in the Cotswold Hills. With the weekly Greenwich Graphicboasting “more millionaire subscribers than anywhere in the United States,” the building of quintessential country estates in picturesque settings with boxwood gardens took hold, turning farms into aristocratic enclaves “guarded from every nuisance.” The transformation of the old Bush Farm into Belle Haven was regarded “the opening wedge,” the genesis of Greenwich’s real estate operations that led to a population of 15,000 genteel summer suburbanites. Other residential centers also flourished, “unmarred by factory or shanty,” like Byram Shore, Sound Beach Park, and Riverside, according to the New York Daily Tribune.
(“Sound Beach Park” was renamed Old Greenwich early in the last century after locals determined that the word “beach” was attracting too many undesireable day-trippers. So that much hasn’t changed.)