Gold rush or paradigm shift?

Sometime in the 80s my father, who’d worked on Wall Street since 1929 and seen it all, gave up, saying, “I no longer understand the place”. I’m beginning to sympathize.

Mind you, Wall Street went on without him and made billionaires out of many younger people, so in that case, there was a paradigm shift going on, where traditional investment values were displaced. Of course, my father also watched the crash of ‘29 just as he’d graduated with an MBA from Columbia, and lived through the Depression, so he had a jaundiced view of “can’t fail” stock markets; I’ve gone through a few busted cycles myself.

In any event, 185 Riverside Avenue, a 1900 house of awkward design and asking $6.995 million, is pending.

Whatever.

Another essential worker gets the vaccine

I’m the champion of the poor!

Chris Murphy, 47, is first in line for the Chinese Bat Wing vaccine.

“Look”, Murphy told FWIW, “it’s people of color who are suffering the most under this thing, and that’s why we’re denying old white people access to the vaccine and prioritizing black folks, criminals, and the homeless. But who’s the best person to protect the interests of those helpless, child-like people? ME! So I’m essential.”

Senator Dick Blumenthal, one of the elderly white population who, as beneficiaries of a racist health care system has, according to the NYT, forfeited his right to early vaccination, also got a dose, “but that’s because I’m special”, he told FWIW.

While it’s true that liquor store employees are also considered essential workers (probably more so than AOC, who was first in the receiving line, alongside Murphy), some politicians, like Tulsi Gabbord, have denounced the policy of putting old people low one step behind the young and healthy.

Our dictators do seem to be following a crazy policy: if the greatest danger from Kung Flu falls on old people (5% of those infected die, vs. 0.05% of younger), then it makes sense, to me, to vaccinate the vulnerable first and let the rest of the country go about its business.

The fact that we’re not doing that makes me wonder what, exactly, is the goal here; certainly not ending COVID deaths.

Monday funny (of course, it's barely noon, so check back in later)

While we’re on the topic, meet “Rachel”, née Richard Levine, the mentally ill Pennsylvania Health Commissioner dictating the lives of that state’s citizens during this Kung Flu panic:

This post not approved by national association of realtors

Stop them before they kill again

It would be interesting to see a similar price chart for CT and Florida

Californians metastasizing.

They’ve spent decades ruining their state and transforming it into a 100% - Democrat-controlled hellhole, and now they’re fleeing, bringing their politics with them. They’ve already ruined Colorado, now they’ve shifted their sights onto their next host.

San Franciscans and Los Angelos invading Texas? F’em — make them produce a lifetime NRA membership card or throw them back.

And another quick sale, in Riverside

12 Long View “Avenue” [sic- it’s that little connection between Gilliam and Armstrong with a “long view”, if any, of the former Fountain shanty down the hill on Gilliam] listed at $3.750 in September, went to contract in October, and has sold for $3.675.

It sold new in 2016 for $3.9 million, but this appears to have been a relocation company sale, so no harm to those 2016 buyers.

Quick sale

15 Stanwich Road was listed in mid-October for $1.795 million and has closed at $1.745. This is a great time for owners who want to cash out and move elsewhere, out of town, but it’s tough for residents who want to stay here and move-up: The high price you get on your sale is matched by the high price of the house you’d like to move to.

The effects of Bat Flu reach Conyers Farm, and revive it

Purchased by a customer?

The CEO of EZCorp has a contract on his home up there at 21 Hurlingham, currently asking $8.595 million.

I posted a pessimistic review of the odds on this place back in 2018 (with some great comments from you guys), but the panic market seems to have come to its rescue. There are a lot of owners in Conyers who have been “quietly listing” (that means not on the MLS, but available if you ask the right broker) for a decade now — they will find this sale heartening.

Discount offered to buyer who agreed to let the owner leave this lamp behind

Sunday Funnies

Good article on China Bat Flu from, of all places, NPR

Science writer tests positive, never develops symptoms and examines what we know and don’t know about this import from the East. Her conclusion (or the one I drew from her essay): we don’t know diddley.

But informative, and non-hysterical.

Only because she doesn't read this blog can I say, here, "duh".

My beloved, big-hearted, Portland, Oregon daughter Kate reports that her current love-interest’s office was severely damaged today when the bums camped out across the street let their meth-cooker blow up.

He’s fine, fortunately, and if I know Portland, this incident, like all the rest, will do nothing to change public opinion there about the value of turning over their parks and streets to the distressed.

Hey, their city, their decision; I’m just glad I’m not trying to reside or make a living out there.