Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
500 Valley Road, Cos Cob, has been reported sold. $3.345 million selling price, $3.295 asked. Listed September 3rd, and fully under contract in 7 days (essentially, what with contract preparation and the like, overnight.)
Nice location, good-looking house, and this seems to be the goig price for house like it these days, so no surprise here.
unlike so many houses one sees on the market, this one enjoys a callipygian backside — good on the builder
Stephen Green, PJ Media:
Germany has a little problem with the totally grateful Muslim migrants that Berlin's elites have allowed into the country, where they show their gratitude by stabbing Germans. But don't worry because one German doctor has just the thing to deal with a knife attack, and no, it isn't stitches.
Before we get to that, the most recent case to make the news happened less than two weeks ago, when a Syrian "migrant" wounded 31 people, including two children, in an arson attack. He could also be seen carrying an impressive-looking machete.
…
Call me old-fashioned, but the first thing I think of when confronted by a machete-wielding madman is how glad I am that my wife and I both have our concealed carry permits. Then I picture one or both of us going Full Indiana Jones on the madman.
But this is America, where we don't have a whole lot of extra time to waste trying to talk madmen out of their machetes or scimitars or whatever.
Firearms being largely verboten in Germany, one doctor has come up with a surefire way to defend yourself against bad guys with big knives, but it only works if you're a real hoopy frood who knows where your towel is.
Doctors in Germany are being trained to prevent stabbings from migrants using towel slapping techniques… pic.twitter.com/nm1FMh16T8
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) October 8, 2024
The towel-snapping technique is 100% guaranteed to almost work, provided your attacker is a frightened woman with a fake knife who doesn't really want to cut you. Also, you have to carry a towel with you everywhere.
I'm having an impossible time remembering that these are the same people who once overran France in six weeks and made it all the way to the gates of Moscow before winter stopped them cold.
(More at the link; read the whole thing)
I’ll just add that my own towel fighting experience came during good-natured towel-snapping battles in the boys locker room at Eastern Junior High (remember when they had showers in our schools? Such an innocent time), and my knife-fighting resume is even thinner — okay, zero — but it looks to me that that instructor is leaving himself wide open for a knife thrust directly to his chest. Ow.
After describing the various lies our “trusted news sources” have been feeding the masses, Welbprn turns her focus to a recent Washington Post article on inflation, a topic that particularly interested me because of a notice of price increases I recieved from Amazon, as detailed below. Here’s Welborn:
WaPo, the haughty "Democracy Dies in Darkness" rag, who only recently shed their shining example of the extent to which liars and fabulists have become national jokes, now has their "economic columnist" rah-rahing "economic news" that really isn't at all what her very first chirpy paragraph implies, which is normally about as much as people glance at.
“The rest of the numbers - with ZERO CONTEXT - are hidden behind the chart she put up.”
JUST IN: More good news on inflation. US inflation was 2.4% (y/y) in September. That’s close to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target and it’s the lowest since February 2021.
“I noticed.”
She's leaving out the part where CORE INFLATION ROSE TO 3.3% https://t.co/hZ3izOQdGu
— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) October 10, 2024
If you made $100,000 a year when Biden-Harris took office...
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) October 10, 2024
Congratulations, you now make $83,000 a year.
Vote accordingly. pic.twitter.com/WAV2dI7m47
As promised, here’s my Amazon story:
When I went to Amazon just now I received a notice of price increases on items that I’d placed in the “maybe later” cart. Pretty impressive:
Amazon Basic water filters for Brita pitchers: From $9.39 to $12.49
Levis dungarees: From $29.33 to $36.90
Solar battery pack for cell phone: From $39.00 to $49.99
The flashlight (pictured above): From $12.95 to $19.95
Have I mentioned that on January 20, 2001, I paid $1.67 a gallon to fill my Honda’s gas tank while in New Hampshire? It’s a stroke of incredible fortune for the Democrats that half the country believe the Party’s media branch’s lies instead of their own eyes, and have decided on voting based on two issues, and two issues only: ABORTION! and “NOT TRUMP!”.
Otherwise, the Democrats would be in trouble next month.
From America’s Paper of Record, of course
ST. PAUL, MN — Sources close to Bruce Connor say that the 21-year-old martial artist has just finished proving he's a total idiot by spending 17 years earning his black belt when he could have just purchased one on Amazon for $12.99 years ago.
According to Nancy Connor, Bruce's mother, her son's oversight is one of the great disappointments of her life.
"I always told him, all those years," Nancy said, shaking her head. "It was always 'Bruce, we could get this on Amazon for much, much cheaper.' And then he'd always shake his head and go try to break a board or the kitchen table or something. I'm really, really disappointed by this."
Over the past 17 years, Bruce's family has spent well over $14,000 on lessons, tournaments, equipment, and emergency room visits. Bruce, however, thinks that it was worth it.
"This is the proudest day of my life," said the absolute moron, grinning like a chickenbrain. "Because this one has the karate logo on it. I couldn't find any like it on Amazon. Take that, Mom. Why do I do this? Because it's there! Hiyaah!"
At publishing time, Bruce had reportedly totally wasted another 7 years of his life getting really good at chess when he could have just gotten a computer to play it for him.
A NYC interior designer paid $7.650 million for 313 Stanwich Road in June 2023, dolled it up, put it back on the market three weeks ago at $8.995 million, and it’s already pending.
So far as I can tell, the designer/purchaser splashed a lot of paint around, placed the existing refrigerator, new last year, behind tasteful cabinet doors, and performed no structural changes; he shouldn’t have needed to, because the entire house was renovated in ‘22-23. So a quick buck here, for quick work.
I was first introduced to this house in the late ‘80s, when, as a young associate, I was dispatched to interview the owner/client who was embroiled in a (very silly) law suit with a fellow Greenwich decorator. “Take the second entrance, she instructed me when I’d called to set up the appointment and get directions, “not the first.”
Upon arrival, I dutifully continued past the first driveway and proceeded to the second, which, I discovered, had a large “Tradesmen Entrance” posted in front of it. What’s good enough for tradesmen is good enough for me, but I didn’t like her attitude, so I turned around and pulled into the first driveway. I found it amusing that the lady had such a low opinion of lawyers because, besides being married to one, she was also the daughter-in-law of one of the most prominent, famous lawyers in FDR’s administration, and who for decades afterwards served as name partner of one of the world’s largest legal firms. A case of familiarity breeding contempt, perhaps.
2023 kitchen
2024 version
The listing promises an “opportunity to buy home fully furnished”: I assume that means this dingy, useful in almost any situation, and its painter, shown below.
The painter may appear to be a bit large for the dinghy; overkill, even, but when the wind is blowing 180 MPH, you'll be glad you paid extra to get it
42 Loughlin Avenue, $3.485 million. Prices are soaring in our former neighborhood of factory workers and lawyers, and this section of town is rapidly transitioning to Millionaire’s Row. If the trend continues, Cos Cob Elementary may want to discontinue handing its graduating students its traditional “Job Opportunities for You” pamphlet, outlining careers in snowplowing and yard maintenance.
Not the kids wouldn’t find it useful, eventually, but millionaires tend to want their children to complete high school and college before beginning their life’s employment.
poor zebra is now just a pale imitation of itself
25 Lockwood Avenue, $5.495 million, 14 days on market. The house sold new in 2015 for $4.150.
For months this year and last, Hamas supporters disrupted Pomona College, blocking students from classes, occupying professors’ and administrators’ offices, and trashing the campus. At the end of the school year, the college finally called in the cops to clear a tent city erected by the demonstrators, arrested a handful of the rioters, and handed out stern letters of disapproval and a couple of suspensions. This draconian punishment failed to impress the students [sic] and when school started up again this fall, so did they.
Pomona College in southern California is one of five undergraduate colleges and two grad schools that make up a group called the Claremont Colleges. These schools are very selective with Pomona College accepting a lower percentage of applicants than UCLA or UC Berkeley. But the school has had challenges with a group of student activists who call themselves Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA).
On Oct. 7, PDfA held a student walkout similar to the one held at Columbia University on the other side of the country.
…. The group then marched to Carnegie Hall where classes were being held and shoved their way in past security.
🧵NEW: Claremont students marked Oct 7 by occupying and vandalizing a building at Pomona College.
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 9, 2024
They disrupted classes and injured a public safety officer.
A Jewish girl said she was trapped inside and too afraid to try to leave.
Others escaped through a second floor window: pic.twitter.com/m2bwxdqYuA
Protestors spray painted the inside of the building and they “also cut electrical cords inside classrooms, sliced a projector screen, and spray-painted over a bust of William Johnson, a former Pomona trustee.” pic.twitter.com/8kOgqQTnoH
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 9, 2024
Midway through those two to three hours the school put out a statement condemning the action and threatening consequences.
A 1:28 p.m. email from Pomona College read in part, “What started as a peaceful protest this morning has now turned into a subset of individuals currently taking over Carnegie Hall and disrupting academic continuity. Carnegie Hall is now closed, and all individuals should leave that building.”
The email went on to advise all to “please stay away from Carnegie and its immediate surrounding area, to ensure everyone’s safety. We will not permit the presence of masked, unidentified individuals on our campus refusing to show identification when asked. Nor will we stand for the takeover of buildings and the disruption of academic continuity — all of which happened today. Anyone involved in this disruption is subject to disciplinary action.
“We uphold the right to free speech and to protest within the lines of our long-established Claremont Colleges demonstration policy,” it continued. “As always, peaceful protest is allowed within demonstration policy. This action goes beyond policy.”
Sexton: “If they were serious about consequences, they could have just called the police and asked the to arrest everyone in the building. But they didn't do that. Instead, the activists stayed for another two hours and then just left by the back door without being identified or stopped by security. Once it was over, the school sent out another email claiming to have identified some of the activists.”
We have initial identification of several people involved, including a number of individuals from other campuses. As we identify others, disciplinary letters will be sent on a rolling basis. The individuals responsible face sanctions that may include restitution, suspension, expulsion, as well as being banned from campus. We will not, however, be commenting on individual cases.
Its a pretty good bet that Pomo administrators will not take any serious action against these people — as Greenwich’s own David Rafferty asserted just last week, if there are students at disrupted universities who want to study or feel safe, let them find another school. “Anyone currently on a campus where the protests and counter-protests, violence and fear is still front and center, well, you can’t say you didn’t have options.”
I despise Rafferty’s views, but he’s right on this one; if universities chose to stop these criminals, they could; if they don’t, to quote Rafferty again, “then that’s on them”.
How could these spoiled children be stopped? A commenter to Seton’s article gives a simpe answer to what is really just a simple question:
I worked at the University of Arkansas for six years and have experience with this. Here's what everyone needs to know:
Nothing short of expulsion will stop this. When you're expelled, it's over. You can't transfer your transcripts to another school, and you get no refunds. It's as if you never went to that university. Students, and the parents paying for them to be there, immediately respond to that action and start governing themselves accordingly.
You only have to expel a batch of vandal students once and the message is received loud and clear. There'll be a week of griping and a few demonstrations over it, and then the problem goes away and stays away as "we will not tolerate this" becomes part of the known history of the campus.
You expel them and send their family a bill for repairs. The problem ends in a heartbeat.
October 10, 20243:26 AM ET
“There’s no need for those people to endanger the rest of us”, California Governor Gavin Noisome, in Florida for a campaign tour, told FWIW’s environmental correspondent William Nye. In an exclusive interview, granted while exhausted aides took a break from pushing the Gov’s Tesla towards what was rumored to be a still-working charging station five miles away, the governor expounded.
Noisome, whose ban on small generators has drawn praise and hosannahs from Mother Gia worshippers around the world, continued: “These morons should have installed solar panels on their roofs, and then they’d have found plenty of abundant, free energy ready and waiting for them when they came home and set about rebuilding. Well, that’s if they could find their roofs — I understand there’s some issue there.” [“Roof of Tropicana Field, home of MLB’s Tampa Rays, ripped off by Hurricane Milton”].
“As for those who still have homes but no power, well, why should they be entitled to release greenhouse gases, when residents of my own state are forbidden to? We live in the same world, and Floridians can just join us in our sacrifices to save it. No air conditioning, and they’re getting a little warm? Aw, poor babies — we’ll be banning a/c for all the Little People soon, so these suckers can just start getting used to it a little early. No refrigeration to keep food from spoiling? That’s what canned tuna’s for — suck it up, Buttercup.”
The Governor abruptly ended the interview there, and motioned his aides to resume pushing. “Don’t forget to vote for me in ‘28!” he shouted to a small crowd of seemingly-grumpy onlookers as he was rolled away.
There’s been almost no real estate activity this week, so posting on that topic has been sparse (however, stay tuned — after 15 years of trying, Ivana’s former house at 21 Vista Drive is scheduled to close; news at 11!). But today 25 West Way, in Old Greenwich, has been listed at the reasonable price of just $15 million. That may strike you as aggressive for a 5,400 sq. ft. home, but it’s Lucas Point, the best neighborhood (says I) in Old Greenwich, the owners/builders paid $6.750 for the property, with tear-down, in 2007, and the listing agent is my former boss, Joanne Erb, who knows Lucas Point (she should: she lives there) and knows the Greenwich real estate market very, very well, so I defer to her judgment.
Besides, this isn’t really all that unaffordable: according to listing broker Brown Harris’ dandy mortgage calculator, 20% down will give you a monthly payment of just $82,100 and change, and that includes taxes!
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