Snuck in at the bell yesterday afternoon

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8 Woodside Drive, Deer Park offers an interesting perspective on the COVID and post-Covid market. When it was offered at $5.395 million from July-through-September 2020 it went nowhere, and was pulled. Returned to the market in April 2021 at that same price, it sold in 19 days for $5.856 million.

Four years years later, it took a bit longer to settle out the bidders: 22 days, but the wait was worth it, because that same, untouched-since-purchased house was listed at $7.995 million, and sold to NYC (10003) buyers yesterday for $8.750.

(Very) dated 1927 house, typical of the original Deer Park homes (which was one of the reasons for the neighborhood’s appeal to many of us), it sits on 1.9 acres in the R-1 zone, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it replaced by one of the now-standard Biggerbetterbrighterwider models.

Schrödinger’s Lobster: now we know

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Egg-carrying lobster rescued from Utah restaurant and shipped back to Maine found dead on arrival

What was meant to be a celebratory ending for an egg-carrying Maine lobster that was rescued from a restaurant in Utah has taken a sad turn.

“Claudia” as she was called, was rescued from a Red Lobster restaurant tank in St. George, Utah, after employees noticed she was carrying thousands of eggs, which made the lobster federally protected.

NOAA says lobsters can take up to a year to fertilize their eggs, so when Claudia was caught, it may not have been clear she was expecting.

So, a plan was hatched to have her sent back to Portland via FedEx on Friday morning.

CBS 13 was there when she arrived. Unfortunately, it was clear Claudia didn’t survive the journey.

I wonder if Geraldo Rivera was present when they opened the crate?

This sold so quickly that there wasn't even time to take interior pictures — or they saw no need to

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30 Evergreen Road (one of those little side streets off the foot of Lake Avenue) was listed on June 26 at$2.750 million sold yesterday for $3,528,980. Redone floors, kitchen and master bath but, curiously, no central air in this 1923 home. It sits on a half-acre in the R-12 Zone, however, so there’ll be plenty of opportunity to add that feature when the house is either expanded or replaced.

I dunno, I think our own Junior Idiot is still title holder, but Mazie's certainly making him work

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Dumbest Member of Congress?

Sen. Mazie Hirono Asks If Any Court Has Found DEI Unconstitutional, Gets Her Answer

If you're reading these posts in order, you'll know that plenty of people on X agree with this editor that Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono is the dumbest member of Congress. She helped prove that again on Wednesday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitution and Limited Government held a hearing on “Ending Illegal DEI Discrimination & Preferences: Enforcing Our Civil Rights Laws.”

Among those testifying before the subcommittee were Gene Hamilton, president of America First Legal. Hirono tried to nail Hamilton by asking him if any court has said that DEI is unconstitutional, yes or no. She got her answer.

Somewhere, a Democrat "social media communication strategist" is out looking for new employment

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Democratic Party tries to pin ‘record high’ 2025 grocery prices on Trump – but it completely backfires

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) drew widespread mockery Thursday over a since-deleted social media post that showed how the cost of groceries skyrocketed under former President Joe Biden. 

The X post included a graph of soaring cheese, alcohol, dairy, grocery, produce and meat prices dating back to October 2019, with the major inflection point being near the start of the Biden administration in 2021.

“Trump’s America,” read the tweet shared by @TheDemocrats. 

“Prices are higher today than they were on July 2024 all in major categories listed below,” read the caption on the graphic, which did not note the source of the data.

….

The Biden-era price surges – highlighted in red by the White House –  took up the majority of the graph, whereas the more stable cost of goods under Trump was only a sliver of the chart.  

Conservative podcaster Kyle Becker described the tweet as “one of the dumbest posts in  @X history,” noting that the DNC deleted it “after getting ratioed into oblivion.”  [Pausing only long enough to fire the staffers who prepared and approved it? — Ed]

Under Biden, inflation surged to rates unseen since the early 1980s, peaking at an annual rate of 9.1% in June 2022 — 17 months after he took office.

By the end of Biden’s term in the White House, the cost of food had ballooned more than 22% from the time he took the oath of office, federal data shows. 

Meanwhile, under Trump, food prices have increased by about 0.6% since January.