On the other hand, and unlike the owners mentioned in the previous post, these sellers are going to do just fine.

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62 Brookside Drive was listed at $6.495 million on October 11th and it’s already reported as pending — that’s usually a sign of multiple-offers, above ask. These soon-to-be sellers paid $5.650 million for it on October 31st, 2023, and although the listing notes that the house has been “completely renovated”, it fails to explain that that renovation was performed by the previous owners in 2022. In fact, the present ownership here was so brief that there wasn’t even time to take new pictures, and the 2022 ones had to be recycled. Te green crowd will be pleased.

A Milbrook sale, but not at the price they were looking for

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70 Orchard Drive has sold for $4.7 million. Not bad, but it was put on the market in April at $6.050. But there probably won’t be much gnashing of teeth and wailing here: the owners paid just $2.8 for the place in 2009 after it had been renovated, put in a new kitchen in 2023 and otherwise left it pretty much alone.

It was the previous owners of this property who fared worse: they paid $3.780 million in 2004, tried to sell it as land from 2006 to 2009, and finally accepted, as noted, $2.8.

Apache women

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The male warriors among the noble savages that once wandered this country could be quite cruel to their captives (by the way, the white man didn’t bring slavery to these shores, there were plenty of slaves already here, in Indian villages), but when circumstances permitted, they’d torture them briefly in the field and then bring them home to their camps for the women to have a go. The ladies could keep captives alive for days, much to the merriment of the whole tribe.

All that was before the invention of late night comedy shows, of course, and the entertainment value of these barbeques faded over time; fortunately for those who enjoy a good belly laugh, liberal women have taken over where the squaws left off, and they’re every bit as mean.

This may not do it

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4 South Stanwich Road has been reduced in price by a full 1%, from $2.199 million to $2.175. It failed to sell in 2022-23, and hasn’t found a buyer since reappearing in June, so a more substantial reduction might be called for.

One thing that is absolutely not helping this house’s prospects is the “$104,000 owed on Solar Panels and Tesla Battery, to be paid by Buyer.” It’s a pretty piece of property, and it might have been expected to have increased in value since these owners paid $2,081,250 for it in 2004, but it has not; the money spent on installing wind beanies might better have been devoted to upgrading the kitchen and baths — just an observation.

I remember Hubert

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History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

PowerLine’s Steven Hayward reads publications like the New York Review of Books so that the rest of us don’t, and after going through that publication’s special election issue, dredged up this gem from one Susan Faludi, “the Joyful Kamala Harris and the Mirthless Donald Trump”:

[Harris’s] high-wattage beams and peals of laughter, her sartorial mash-ups of Chuck Taylors and pearls, and her campaign’s convention theme of “joy” all telegraph a happy-warrior candidacy.

(FWIW):

So what happened to the previous “Happy Warrior” who tried to move up from Vice President to Big Cheese? Nothing good, if you were a Democrat. Here’s a bit of history from Wikipedia, with bolding added to highlight some of the parallels with the current laughing hyena’s candidacy: Entered no primaries; was awarded the nomination by Democrat bosses; picked “a little-known Senator as his running mate; was closely tied to the policies of his then-boss; and ultimately, while coming very close to winning the popular vote, lost by a huge margin in the Electoral College. The farce is strong in this one.

“Humphrey entered the race too late to participate in the Democratic primaries. He relied on "favorite son" candidates to win delegates and lobbied for endorsements from powerful bosses to obtain slates of delegates. The other candidates, who strove to win the nomination through popular support, criticized Humphrey's traditional approach. The June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy left McCarthy as Humphrey's only major opponent. That changed at the 1968 Democratic National Convention when Senator George McGovern of South Dakota entered the race as the successor of Kennedy. Humphrey won the party's nomination at the Convention on the first ballot, amid protests in Chicago. He selected little-known Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as his running mate. Humphrey was the first nominee who did not participate in the primaries until Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

“During the general election, Humphrey faced former Vice President Richard Nixon of California, the Republican Party nominee, and Governor of Alabama George Wallace, the American Independent Party nominee. Nixon led in most polls throughout the campaign, and successfully criticized Humphrey's role in the Vietnam War, connecting him to the unpopular president and the general disorder in the nation. Humphrey experienced a surge in the polls in the days prior to the election, largely due to incremental progress in the peace process in Vietnam and a break with the Johnson war policy. On Election Day, Humphrey narrowly fell short of Nixon in the popular vote, but lost, by a large margin, in the Electoral College.”

Cos Cob sale

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255 Valley Road, $1.2 million; started at $1.450 last May. Some of it dates to 1848, although that’s no longer obvious, and it was also listed as land. Pretty rough interior, and right on what was doubtless a far quieter road before the (Civil) War, but at this price, so what? Great views, and if you can push through the algae, you and your kayak will have a great paddle up and down Mianus Pond. I’d certainly be glad to live here.

you won’t get this view from an office cubicle

push!