I only wish they were making this stuff up

Stop them before they kill again!

A reader just alerted Walt that his idea for a PC Easter Egg hunt has already been hatched by PETA and I made the mistake of Googling to see if it was true. Oh indeed it is. The wack-jobs will be at the White House this Sunday, assaulting some 30,000 children with this:

The leaflet from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is titled, “Eggs Are Better Lost Than Found” and reads, in part, “Eggs come from millions of chickens who spend their whole lives locked inside small cages in dark buildings. They never get to be out in the sunshine, walk around, or even stretch. These places are called ‘factory farms,’ and they are mean to chickens.”

 

Snicker

Occupy Wall Street lizards floundering. Rapes, stabbings and thefts should go down dramatically this summer.

It’s racism, I tell you, racism!

If you really loved me, you’d know who I was. Rap star pulls an illegal left-turn across three lanes while driving a car with illegal tinted windows and is pulled over by the cops. The stop was racist, he says, because they didn’t realize what an important person he was. This is the equivalent of Martha Stewart pulling the same stunt and complaining about gender bias.

Finally, a government program that breaks even

Chevy Volt will recoup your extra cost of buying one in twenty-seven years. That’s with the Obummer gift of $7,000.

Golfer in Chief to Augusta: “let those women play!”

Don't tell the girls where we are!

Just don’t let them get anywhere near me when I’m relaxing with the Boyz.

Obama played 23 rounds of golf between January and October of 2009 before inviting a single woman to his foursome, the New York Times reported. This was emblematic of broader concerns over the president’s preference for the company and advice of men:

The technical foul over the all-male game has become a nagging concern for a White House that has battled an impression dating to the presidential campaign that Mr. Obama’s closest advisers form a boys’ club and that he is too frequently in the company of only men — not just when playing sports, but also when making big decisions.

A Democrat stalwart weighs in

If I had a father, he'd look like Marion

Marion “Crack Head” Barry opines on the “Asians” who have set up shop in Choclate City:

“We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops,” Barry said in remarks on Tuesday night first reported by WRC-TV. “They ought to go. I’m going to say that right now. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”

As solar goes bust, Europe rethinks

While China says, “thank you so much for so many jobs!” And the Great One replies, “you’re welcome – we’ll subsidize anything if it will create a job overseas.”

Gideon does Cos Cob

He’s sold 16 Limerick Place, for $2 million.

Another type of landmark

Old Greenwich Harbor House is for sale at $5,000,000. Neat old place dating back to 1895 when “Sound Beach” was still a summer community. I rather doubt it can still make a go of it as a lodging house anymore – certainly not at this price – but it is 0.57 acre on the way to the beach. I’d want a discount.

I’d say that the Stuttig family is finally preparing to unload some of the real estate they’ve amassed over the past decades but given the price they’re asking for their Indian Drive property and now this one,it’s safe to assume they are in no hurry to move.

Speaking of Old Greenwich waterfront, 48 Shore Road finally has an accepted offer. Last asking price was $5.095, for 0.77 acre and a tired house. Original price was $7.4 million in 2008 – funny how it takes some people such a long time to catch on.

A Riverside landmark comes on the market

25 Oval

25 Oval Avenue has been listed for sale at $1.875 million and held its first open house today. Riverside residents have marvelled for years at this house’s unique exterior, so unexpected in the land of Colonials and Tudors, but I know no one who’s been inside, until now. It’s quite elegant, with mahogany doors and a modern kitchen, but a little cramped for space, with just three bedrooms upstairs and none below. It’s obvious that the owners redid this space to suit their needs and tastes and I applaud them for it. But reselling it will probably be more problematic than if it were a more conventional house.

No one in Riverside had ever seen a house like this here and I doubt they will again. And, while I can’t blame my friend Bill Lapcevic’s fatal heart attack on the mere existence of this house, he did live next door, and was rather loud in his objection to its appearance. When I’d call him at home and address him as Sir Lancelot he grew positively testy, in fact. In any event, it’s available for your purchase now. Those of you worried that your house number is too small to be readily seen from the street by our EMS or other rescue services can relax in this home, secure in the knowledge that no house number will be required to recognize where you live. That’s an opportunity.

Howdah Duty?

Some interesting open houses

Saw a number of good houses today (links to three of them are in the first link)

317 Stanwich

317 Stanwich is well off Stanwich, which I suppose makes it a back lot but also makes it quiet. This was once Alice Tully’s weekend spot and the new owners have renovated it very nicely. It’s a non-conventional lay out but one that would definitely work for an older couple who wanted to put grandchildren up for weekends, but a family with one or two small children could also make this work. It’s pretty much one-floor living but there is a master and two bedrooms upstairs and a nanny quarters with a separate entrance. I’d be tempted to knock down the wall between the master bedroom and combine it with the nanny’s room, but that’s just one idea.

2.9 acres, pool, very nice grounds. I’d probably negotiate its $2.895 asking price but that’s what a buyer’s market is all about.

99 Londonderry had its negotiating done for you, buy the sellers. They tried unsuccessfully to sell this for $2.9 million back in 2008, rented it out instead and have now brought it back on at $2.2, a much more realistic price. It’s a contemporary, lots of light, good spaces, and it backs up to the Burning Tree golf course so you shouldn’t have to buy another golf ball in your life. Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea but I liked it.

21 Hendrie Avenue in Riverside is an old farmhouse (moved to its location here, along with the farmhouse next to it, in, I believe, the 20′s). Owners paid $1.595 for it in 2005 and completely renovated it, from new windows to baths, kitchen, etc. and have priced it at $1.995, which seems fair. Decent yard and easy location. Good house.

 

It’s back

9 Tomney Road (off lower Stanwich) has returned to the market after expiring unsold last fall at $2.750 million. The owners paid $2.795 for it in 2006 and, perhaps inspired by the recent contract on 42 Bote Road, just around the corner, which was asking $3.3 million, they’ve essentially left last year’s unsuccessful price unchanged, dropping it a wee bit to $2.699.

This was an impressive house six years ago – good quality finishes and a convenient location, even if the back yard was skimpy. I’ll be curious to see whether Bote’s success has pushed this one’s value back up to 2006′s level or if Bote was just a one-off. Stay tuned.

There’s got to be some value here, I’d think

20 West End

20 West End Avenue in Old Greenwich cut its price today from $719,500 to $619,000. It is, I believe, a back lot, not a back lot and its 0.16 lot size in an R-12 zone means the FAR limits it to a mere 2,195 sq.ft (and probably less now that the P&Z’s Green Coverage has been imposed), but walking distance to town? I’d be inclined to stay put in this 1911 structure, maybe sink $100,000 into fixing it up and live happily ever after.

As an aside, the savage price cut today isn’t the only indication that the seller and listing broker aren’t interested in this place. It’s been on since September, 2010 (when it was priced at $839,000) and they’ve only taken one exterior picture. I know that digital photos cost a fortune, but maybe one snap of an outdated kitchen, perhaps, or even the back yard, if there is one?

UPDATE, 10:30. Just walked over to see this place and I can’t believe it’s been out of my sight so long (although its $100,000 price cut today certainly raised its visibility). Roof’s maybe 10 years old, all the windows have been replaced with double-paned, decent yard that could be doubled in size if you took down one of the two separate garages, and that location. New water tank, old oil burner (inside tank, though) but there’s already gas to the house so I’d make the switch instead of worrying about the age of the burner. $50,000 in cosmetics and reconfiguring walls and you’d have a great rental or a place to live. I’ll bet it’s gone by tonight, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I give this scam maybe a year to run

Bear Stearnes alumni

Guys on dating websites pretending to be bankers. Next they’ll impersonate New York Times reporters?

We must hang together else, we shall most assuredly hang separately

I'm sorry and will never do it again!

One day after the Democrats vowed to boycott Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart for belonging to a pro-business group ALEC, Coke throws in the towel. Who, besides the DNC, stirred up this kerfuffle? Something called “Color of Change”, a black civil rights organization.

There’s nothing wrong with advocacy groups pushing their agenda – indeed, that’s exactly what ALEC itself is doing, and strategically, it makes sense to turn to the media to accomplish that agenda. “Pink Slime” lasted less than a week after such an assault. Of course, the company that had been making what it called “textured beef” for thirty years without complaint is now bankrupt and hundreds of workers have been fired but can’t make an omelete and all that.

And I even understand why a corporation might take a short-sighted view of the interests of its shareholders and drop any controversial affiliation rather than stand up to the Democrats. But long-term, rolling on one’s back and sticking all four paws in the air in submission only encourages these people who are, after all, sworn to destroy you. A little backbone would be nice, and smart.

She’s Third World with a demonstrated history of corruption so of course she should head the World Bank

 

Got your money right here, my friend - step up here and get it!

  Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pushed as candidate for new President of the World Bank. 

39 former managers and economists called on the Bank’s executive board to make their decision on merit.  They include Mustapha Nabli, governor of Tunisia’s central bank, and Jean-Michel Severino, who headed France’s International Development Agency from 2001 to 2010, according to Bloomberg.

Their letter reads: “We believe that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala has outstanding qualifications across the full range of relevant criteria,” and adds that Okonjo-Iweala, who was a managing director at the World Bank until last August, “would hit the ground running and get things done from the start,” the letter said.

When I hear “Nigerian” I automatically think, “corruption” so I Googled the term Okonjo-Iweala corruption and my was I rewarded.

$50,000,000 slid under the table to her brother? Hey, business as usual in Nigeria.

$12,000,000 secret kick back? Yup.

And so on. Remember when Paul Wolfowitz was fired from the World Bank because of trumped up charges that he was having an affair with an aide?  The real reason, of course, was that Wolfowitz had been attempting to weed out corruption in the organization and force it to be accountable. No such worry with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala . She’s a shoo-in.