Ah, the site of my first case after I went solo; and also where I first encountered the phenomenon of hoarding

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43 Arcadia Road, Old Greenwich, is priced at $2.395 million and is reported pending after 8 days. The place looks markedly different from when I first saw it in 1988, when it was owned by a sweet old guy, Frank Halleck. If you lived here back then you may remember him, because he was a regular fixture in the Village, always seen with a stevedore hook on his belt, ready for fishing treasure out of dumpsters, and pulling a toy wagon behind him for bringing his finds home.

Frank was a hoarder, and the Collyer brothers would have envied his collecting skills. The backyard was completely buried under everything from barbeque grills, to cardboard boxes, garden tools, and broken bicycles, and inside, newspapers, books, and magazines were stacked to the ceilings, with a maze of passageways through, with enough furniture to fill up any of Greenwich’s finest 10,000 sq. ft. mansions (most of those tables, chairs, bookshelves and lamps were broken, of course, and may not have been welcome in our better houses, but hey).

The summer I met Frank I’d just left a large law firm and had set up shop in the late Bill Lapcevic’s offices on Mason Street. I was looking for clients, and Frank was looking for a lawyer, because his neighbors had somehow managed to persuade a judge to issue an order compelling him to completely clear the backyard jungle of debris. I forget who steered him to me: it might have been Bill, or perhaps then fellow-lawyer, now judge Kevin Tierney, but either way, Frank had enough cash to pay a small retainer, and I was retained.

My legal skills weren’t exercised much that summer, because the order was final, and my efforts were limited to gaining a few extensions of time before the sheriff and a dumpster crew arrived. I did, however, spend hours and days at the property, wearing denims and work boots and attempting to help Frank sort out the trash from the valuable. There was none of the latter, of course, but Frank was unpersuaded: “Oh, you can’t throw that out”, he told me when he caught me tossing a sneaker box into the dumpster I’d rented on his behalf, “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore!” “Frank”, I said, “it’s a Nike box; Nike’s still in business, still making shoes. We’ll throw this one out, and when the judge is satisfied, you can go down to The Sport Shop and get ten more.”

I won that skirmish, but lost most, and finally time ran out. A hired crew descended and cleared the lot, using a front-end loader to pile everything into a succession of dumpster bins: tires; discarded pedestal sinks and toilets, and, damn them, a huge collection of valuable sneaker boxes. A very sad day.

But still, the entire saga had its benefits. We used poor Frank’s example to caution then-7-year-old John, when he refused to pick up his toys, “you don’t want your room to look like Mr. Halleck’s house, do you?”, and the annual St. Paul’s Fair became a family milestone because of that summer of living on a paper thin retainer. At the fair that June, I told the kids we had exactly ten dollars to split between all three of them for rides, period; the next year, I could afford ten dollars for each of them, and every year thereafter the entertainment budget grew as my practice did. So June became a time to look back on and measure how far we’d come, and be grateful.

As for Frank, things worked out, more or less. Although he was devastated by the rude eviction of his treasures, when I passed by a year later I was gratified to see that he’d managed to replenish the piles and perhaps even expand them. I’m sure the neighbors weren’t as gruntled as I was, but Frank was old, and wasn’t going to linger on his mortal coil of garbage forever; patience was the only thing required.

And that patience was rewarded not so very long afterwards. Frank moved on to that great junkyard in the sky, the house changed ownership and was renovated, and now it’s selling for millions. I doubt ride ticket prices at St. Paul’s have matched that rate of appreciation.

Hope it paid off

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145 Doubling Road, 1989 construction, failed to sell when it was listed at $2.195 back in 2022, so the owners pulled it off the market to work on it; placed back up fo sale last August at $4.250 million, it sold today for $3.555.

The work performed was extensive and, presumably, expensive:

2024 renovation include but not limited to a gourmet kitchen with waterfall island designed by Dean, Wet bar, Wolf & Thermador appliances, new windows and exterior/interior doors, new bathroom finishes and fixtures, wide plank floors, LED lighting, new roof, exterior trim, shingle siding, exterior lighting, patio, entertainment/security system, improved HVAC systems, and much more.

So did they make back their money? Enough to justify the two years of extended ownership? I imagine that they did, although obviously, it didn’t pay off as much as they’d hoped. And note that it didn’t sell when it was priced at $2.195, so we don’t know how low that price would have had to go before a buyer stepped up.

Sorry, guys, but I'll be retiring just as soon as this payment comes in

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Found this in my spam file, for some reason. Although I intend to claim all $5.8 million, I’ll bet there’s more available for any of you lucky readers with the perspicacity to move quickly; let me know, and I’ll pass on the email address Miss “Brenda Smith” provided. (Probably works best if you’re a young college socialist — faith in the impossible is often crucial in these things)

THE TOTAL OF FUND WE ARE GOING TRANSFER TO YOU IS $5.8 MILLION

Information reaching us from our Western Union Corporate Headquarters now, States that you only have 48hours to effect payment for the activation of your $5.800,000:00 USD to enable you cash up your total (fund) since you are finding it difficult to make the total payment, We have decided that you are to go ahead and pay whatever you have for the activation fee since you are not able to come up with the total required FEE. Time is of the essence here. You are to pay whatever you have as activation fee; we will activate your fund upon receipt of this payment to enable you to receive your first daily 5,000:00 USD transfer from any Western Union center around you today. Be informed that you will have to pay the balance sum of your activation upon cashing up your first payment

Also I am using this medium to inform you that failure to pay the balance sum will leave us with no option but to deactivate your fund of which you will and can never cash up your total sum again if you don`t observe western union procedure. I want you to use Western Union to send whatever you have for the activation fee with the information Below to the country origin of your funds

Receiver name: Nze Chuks
Receiver city: COTONOU.
Receiver country: BENIN.
Country code: 229.
Text question: COLOUR.
Text answer: BLUE.
Amount: YOU CAN PAY ANY AMOUNT YOU HAVE NOW.
(M.T.C.N) Money Transfer Control Number ::::::::
Sender's name ::::::::

Kindly reconfirm to him the following below information:

Your full name__________________
Your address______________________
Your country________________________
Your Phone number_____________________
Your ID______________________

I will instruct you about the information which is needed from you as soon as you send the fee so we can activate your first payment release:
Send us the MTCN number, Sender Address, immediately you send the money and immediately we confirm the activation fee, I will transfer you the fund immediately today I promise you as soon as we hear from you with the payment of ANY AMOUNT YOU ARE DIRECTED to send today, we shall send your first payment of $5,000.00 for you to pick up with the information you need to receive your payment the same day you send the payment of ANY AMOUNT and I swear you will receive your payment immediately

Miss. Brenda Smith
Head Office Operations Manager.
WhatsApp phone line is +229 63 59 10 13

Confirming the first cartoon in the previous post

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IRONY: Clooney’s 'Goodnight and Good Luck' Ends With Image of Musk That PROVES Media Trust Is DEAD

Amazing what growing up in Riverside with a "finishing" at a fine school in Switzerland can produce (Updated)

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UPDATE:

January 24, 2025: “Banning TikTok has nothing to do with the Chinese, it’s about Israel”.

December 9, 2024: she told Piers Morgan that she felt “joy” about the brutal killing, “along with so many other Americans,” she claimed.

Related?

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home set on fire by arsonist while his family slept

And:

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Straight to their appropriate Cayman Island accounts

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“shipping, is responsible for approximately 3% of total greenhouse gas emissions.”

Instapundit:

TARIFFS UNTHINKABLY BAD FOR TRADE, “CARBON TAXES” UNIMAGINABLY GOOD: Countries agree to reduce maritime emissions, tax carbon offenders.

UPI:

April 12 (UPI) -- More than 100 nations in the International Maritime Organization have agreed to fuel standards for ships and fees for carbon emissions offenders, which the Trump administration opposes.

In London on Friday, the United Nations agency members agreed on a draft to be formally adopted in October in an effort to cut down on global carbon emissions.

If adopted, it would go into effect in 2027 for ocean-going vessels over 5,000 gross tonnage, which collectively account for 85% of carbon dioxide emissions from the marine shipping fleet. They did not, however, agree on a levy on carbon dioxide usage, which would net roughly $60 billion a year.

The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships has 108 parties, covering 97% of the world's merchant shipping fleet by tonnage, and already has some mandatory efficiency requirements for ships.

…. IMO set a goal for shipping to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

President Donald Trump withdrew from the organization earlier this month, saying the United States would reciprocate against any fees imposed on U.S. ships. The White House and State Department yet commented on the draft proposal.

Major oil-producing states, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Russia, also oppose the measure, as do several small island states who abstained on the final vote. A levy for all carbon dioxide emissions was opposed by those nations as well as Brazil, China and the European Union.

“In the agreed-upon plan, there would be a new standard for the volume of emissions per unit of energy used by the ship. Ship owners that do not meet certain emission targets will have to offset their emissions or pay into the IMO net-zero fund, a measure that is forecast to raise about $10 billion.

“The fund will be used to reward ships with low emissions, support clean energy research, further the IMO's greenhouse gas reduction initiatives and support places vulnerable to climate change. The plan is reduce emissions about 8% by 2030. ….”

"The approval of draft amendments to MARPOL Annex VI mandating the IMO net-zero framework represents another significant step in our collective efforts to combat climate change, to modernize shipping and demonstrates that IMO delivers on its commitments, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said.

According to The Washington Post, some of the opposition to the plan is that "2030 is less than 5 years away ... As a matter of scientific, engineering and technical reality it will not be possible to reduce emissions beyond 6% within that time frame for all ships, leading to unnecessary penalization that will result in significant impacts on trade, food and energy security and our beloved sector."

Grift for the members of the UN’s International Maritime Organization and their friends, while they pay lip service, but do nothing about the major, huge threat to international shipping, which a naive observer, observing its title, might think would be the IMO’s main concern:

How the Shipping Crisis in the Red Sea is Impacting Trade

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping has meant that global shipping is facing major disruptions, rerouting vessels, leading to an affect in trade

​​​​​​​Another major crisis is unfolding in the global shipping industry as Houthi attacks in the Red Sea continue to disrupt one of the world's most essential trade routes.

Since late 2023, Houthi rebels based in Yemen have targeted commercial vessels, which has forced shipping companies to reroute their journeys around Africa's Cape of Good Hope instead of passing through the Suez Canal.

This situation not only raises security concerns but also sends shockwaves throughout global supply chains, affecting trade from Asia to Europe and beyond.

The Detours and Rising Costs

The Red Sea, connecting to the Mediterranean via the 120-mile-long Suez Canal, is ordinarily a major path for container shipping linking Asia and Europe.

Typically, about 30% of the global container trade passes through this route. However, container shipments in the region have dropped by 75% since these security threats escalated. Many shipping companies now altogether avoid the Suez Canal, opting to navigate around Africa instead.

This necessary detour adds an extra 10 to 14 days to the traditional 30 to 40-day voyage from Asia to Europe, leading to significantly higher fuel costs, increased insurance premiums and logistic complications for companies depending on timely deliveries.

According to Xeneta’s Chief Analyst, Peter Sand, the increased risk is clear: "All ships transiting the Suez Canal must sail through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and the Houthi militia has made clear that any vessel is a target."

Interesting, but it'll go nowhere; business as usual, for D.C.

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Charlie Kirk “How did Joe Biden get so rich?”

James Comer “No one's ever been able to figure that out. What we were able to do is subpoena the bank records of his son and his brother. We found that they took in $27 million from bad people in bad countries, not for any business purpose, because the Bidens didn't own a real business. The only business that we could determine in our year and a half long investigation was they were selling access to Joe. There's a term for that that's called lobbying, I guess you could say. -

Number 1, You're not supposed to have immediate family members that lobby

Number 2, If you lobby foreign entities, you're supposed to register as a foreign agent There's a bill, a law called the Foreign Agents Registration Act. None of his family registered for that. What we found during our investigation was from the IRS whistleblowers that they never paid a penny of taxes on this $27 million. So $27 million coming in tax free, that's a pretty good start.”