Last one to St. Pete's is a doody head

We’re Number One! Connecticut the worst (most expensive) state to retire in. But we won’t miss those estate taxes, what with all our casino money flooding in.

Andrew Pighill (NYT, Suzanne DChillo)

Unearthed from July, heretofore unread, a link to this NYT article on Greenwich resident Andrew Pighill (well of course he’s English – what would you think, with a name like that?). He builds dry stone walls, teaches amateurs how to do it and sounds like a fascinating guy. I’ve done some of this myself and while I wouldn’t claim to be a craftsman, my terraced walls built in the mid-90s are still holding up – more than I can say for myself.

I only lie when necessary; Unfortunately, that seems to be all the time, but I'm otherwise honest.

Sure seems like it. It is a crime for anyone to do that – see, eg, Roger “Steroids” Clemens – but the Attorney General is especially not supposed to do that. He’s been lying to everyone since he crawled into office, of course,but this time there are emails that will nail him. He’s due back before Congress this Thursday to try again to explain what he knew and when he knew it – I don’t think even Obumpkin can save him now but then again, never doubt the power of the presidency.

By the way, this gun running operation, “Fast and Furious”, is the scandal that the lunatic Left had so much fun poo poohing last year and denouncing those who said Holder knew all about it long before he swore to Congress he didn’t. Why, people like us were as deluded as those who deny global warming!

Everything else reported today, and there isn’t much, was priced below a million. Feast or famine.

Columbia University grads accepting their due

Some think so – we’ve become a Nation of Moochers.

My seester or my burro - same price!

That Lincoln Log fellow is fulminating in his paper over the town’s “decision” to allow Dunkin Donuts to open in Old Greenwich. I haven’t had a chance to check this with Fudrucker, my source for all matters zoning, but from what I read, P&Z had no control over this store: it’s a permitted use and no special exceptions or variances were required. If the space it fits, you must permit. Or something like that.

I’m not wild about DD coming across the street because the very small parking space behind my office, which I pay rent on, is bound to be clogged with illegal parkers – whom we will tow, but what a pain. That said, that’s not the doughnut shop’s problem. Besides, if old Abe Lincoln there really thinks, as he says he does, that Dunkin Donuts brews the best coffee in the world, he’s obviously unqualified to speak on any matter relating to coffee: beans, traffic or even whether a store is pretty in pink.

(Picture circa 2007)

While waiting for something to get reported on the MLS (it’s past 11:00 and still nothing – maybe the office is closed today) I was prowling listings on behalf of a client and came across this old chestnut, 502 Cognewaugh Road; I didn’t realize it was still around. It started, new, back in 2007 asking $6.995 million and now, five years later, it’s $3 million less, $4.195, but still available. I liked this house when I first saw it but now, unfair as that may be, it’s really on a death watch: how long can the owner/builder hold on?

I’m not saying that the would-be seller is in financial trouble – I have no knowledge whatsoever of his finances and for all I know he’s Michelle Obama’s bosom buddy and goes on weekly shopping splurges with her. But a miasma starts accumulating around listings as they age in place and sellers end up getting less than they could have had they priced their house appropriately in the first place. Don’t let that happen to you.