Okay, I wasn’t planning to post anything after the last entry but …

Woman shaving her private parts causes car crash. Her ex-husband was driving her to a date with her new boyfriend and got distracted while watching her prepare herself. Damn, can I live without this stuff for ten days?

Gone in sixty seconds

Well, eleven hours from now, anyway. I am headed off to the Berkshires for some sort of spiritual reawakening that my good friend Joel Kaye has prodded me into. I expect I’ll be pulling off my shirt, painting my chest blue and beating drums for the next week. Will I come back chastened, contrite, and kind? Doubtful, but at least I’ll be out of town and away from emails, cellphones and real estate.

While I’m gone, I’ve turned this blog over to brother Gideon, who will probably wreck it but what the Hell – should be fun. You got complaints, talk to Gideon. You love what he does, then maybe he’ll start his own damn blog.

I expect to be back a week from Saturday, or maybe Sunday. Until then, bang the drum slowly.

Price it, sell it – there really is no mystery to this

A week ago I wrote about 30 Spruce Street in Riverside, which the listing agent Cathy Adams brought on at the same price her clients had paid for it in 2002: $1.425 million. I saw Cathy today and she told me they had four serious bidders and it’s already on its way to contract. Now I’m pretty sure Cathy was an IBM executive in her past life so okay, she’s really smart, but sellers could be just as smart as she by pretending it’s 2002 again. The choice is yours: sell your house in a week or price it where you hope it will return to three years from now. My advice is, if you want to sell now, do it right. And if you want that future price, wait until then before listing it.

And by the way, this example – four bidders! – also points out what I’ve been saying: there are tons of buyers out there, all ready and able to buy a house. They aren’t bottom feeding, but they also aren’t willing to pay 2007 prices. When a well-priced house appears, they snap it up.

It’s tough when you’re taken for granted

Congressional Black Caucus miffed that Obama ignores them. But, duh – he doesn’t need them and they have nowhere else to go. So what do they bring to the party? Nothing. This was all laid out in Bullworth years ago. They should have watched the movie.

Angry black woman: Are you sayin’ the Democratic Party don’t care about the African-American community?
Bullworth: Isn’t that OBVIOUS? You got half your kids are out of work and the other half are in jail. Do you see ANY Democrat doing anything about it? Certainly not me! So what’re you gonna do, vote Republican? Come on! Come on, you’re not gonna vote Republican! Let’s call a spade a spade!
[Loud, angry booing]
Bullworth: I mean – come on! You can have a Billion Man March! If you don’t put down that malt liquor and chicken wings, and get behind someone other than a running back who stabs his wife, you’re NEVER gonna get rid of somebody like me!

It was probing that got him in trouble in the first place!

House votes to keep Masa probe open. Too much information?

One less loophole

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that Obama must sign the Senate Healthcare bill before they address reconciliation. The House had been toying with voting for the Senate bill but not sending it to Obama for signing until the reconciliation passed – now they can’t do that. Remember, all this drama is because House Democrats don’t trust their fellow Democrats in the Senate. Heck of a party ya got there, guys.

A labor of love, it turns out

8 Wyckham Hill

The owner of this house on Wyckham Hill paid $3.3 million for it in 2006, dumped a ton of money into upgrades and improvements and returned it to the market last year at $4.995. Bad timing. It’s been dropping in price ever since and today it’s hit $3.3 again, so all that work turns out to have been done for free. The assessment is $2.8ish, so this is actually approaching the level of  a decent deal.

You’d think after the Sea World incident, turnabout would be fair play

But no – California sushi restaurant indicted for serving whale meat.

If I’m reading this right, we have trouble on our southern border

We don't need no stinkin' badges, but we got 'em!

Mexican cartels have infiltrated our border guard service.

Assistant commissioner with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Internal Affairs James Tomsheck told a Senate panel Thursday that about one in 10 new hires at the agency take polygraph tests, and 60 percent of those are deemed unsuitable for employment.

So we only polygraph one tenth of new hires and 60% of them turn out to be corrupt? That would seem a strong argument for polygraphing all of them, no?

UBS layoffs

The Wealth Management division is laying off hundreds, at all levels. I believe this division is based in New York City and not Stamford, but it still isn’t good news for Greenwich.

Worse than expected by whom?

Jobless claims worse than expected. The “experts” keep being surprised by bad economic news. Who are they talking to?

He must have seen the headline and panicked

Business Week: Sex life ends at 70.

CBS: 70-year-old drugs, rapes dinner companion

Cast iron – it’s what’s for dinner

I’ve always cooked with the stuff and because my father trained me from childhood, I don’t run it through the dishwasher and ruin it as the InstaWife does (I also refrain from ruining my knives in that appliance, unlike the Insta Wife). It’s dirt cheap, lasts forever and distributes heat like nothing else. Great cookware.

The “last adult left in Albany” offers a budget solution

Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch at least has a plan, which is more than anyone else in our neighboring state. And Ravitch is a smart fellow. Will the Albany idiots adopt it? The New York Times suggests they will – I have my doubts.

ALBANY — State lawmakers reacted with cautious interest on Wednesday to a broad proposal from Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch to tackle New York’s staggering long-term budget deficit, but suggested that it would most likely require changes to win legislative approval.

It’s those “changes” that cause me to doubt that the legislature will actually do the right thing, but at least their minds are concentrated by their state’s looming financial disaster. These are interesting times, that have produced a Chris Christie in New Jersey and Richard Ravitch in New York. Do we have such a person here in Connecticut? I’m not aware of one, but I hope we do, and that he or she will emerge, very soon.