Greenwich’s Rev. Moynihan to plead guilty to something, finally

I thought I was going to Penn State, not State Pen

Four years after he was arrested for stealing more than $500,000 from the parishioners of St. Michael church, Moynihan will plead to an obstruction of justice charge. No explanation in the article as to how theft and embezzlement was dropped to this charge, nor where he’s been all these years, whether any of the loot was recovered or how many choir boys were involved. I think a follow-up story is needed.

Math for the rest of us?

Don’t know much about Algebra but Riverside resident Brian Peldunas does and he’s got a website to prove it. Mr. Peldunas thinks the Board of Ed is providing our children a lousy math education and he’ll get no argument from me. Try his blog and see what he’s complaining about and what he suggests.

A contract

Some call it ugly

77 Londonderry, a 1987 house redone this year and on the market for just 32 days asking $4.199 million (!) has a contract. No house on Londonderry has ever sold for as much as $3 million, so this is quite a surprise – to me, anyway.  If you’re looking in this price range beware – there are, despite what you think, other buyers out there and some of them are buying. And even  willing to set new price records. Sheesh.

Many are called, few are investigated

Greedy, not needy

More than 800 state employees (defined as people who, regardless of whether they actually work, receive a salary from you) applied for emergency food stamps after Hurricane Irene. Fraud was suspected because, incredibly, you were supposed to be poor to participate and some wise guy thought to ask how someone earning $45,000 a year, plus benies, could be considered “poor”. Our government watchdogs have labored, squeezed mightily and finally produced a list of 24 such employees who, someday, will be “investigated”. The rest of the freeloaders get off scot-free and the state refuses to even guess if any of the Hartford Twenty-four will be prosecuted. Feel better now?

Can you still build a house in Greenwich?

I suppose so, but in the past two days I’ve heard two separate horror stories of homeowners who, despite complying with every rule and regulation the town thrust upon them, were still grievously delayed in completing their homes. The story I heard today was from a client who bought a building lot 18 months ago and is still a month away from completing his modest modular home. Not because of a slow builder, mind you, but because our town drags its feet inspecting, changes interpretation of regulations with every change of building inspector and often during one inspector’s tenure, based solely on whether the man’s underwear is too tight on a given day.

The bright spot is that a completed house is more valuable if it will take another would-be builder a couple of years to get past the hurdles at Town Hall. The downside is that, just like our floor area regulations, this stuff drives up the cost of housing and drives people mad. A better system would be to agree to turn a blind eye to bribery and let home owners know that they have honest building inspectors who, just like honest judges, will stay bribed when they’re first bribed.

Well dang! Obummer staying put in Washington over Christmas

It's back to D.C. for you, lazybones!

That gibe from Romney about “hands on” not meaning getting better grip on a golf club must have stung. I’ve said it before: Our president is welcome to leave the capital and stay away forever, just so long as he takes Congress with him.

China steals the iPad

I'll take that, thank you

Apple loses trademark case. If you understand, and you should, that Chinese courts are creatures of the government and do exactly the government’s bidding, then you’ll understand why no property is safe in that benighted land.

It astonishes me that so many companies, lured by the prospect of billions of buyers, do business with China when they know that within a very short time they will be stripped of everything of value. Their brief earnings spurt will be as nothing when they no longer have anything, yet they continue to go there. I say stupidity and greed but maybe there’s another,  less obvious reason.

Shut him away, shut him up

Blago get5s 14 years. Obummer, Bill Ayers were unavailable for comment.

It always comes down to the land

134 Butternut

134 Butternut Hollow is back on the market today, still asking $1.995 million. Sure, that seems like a buy, considering that the seller paid $2.010 in 2002 and the 2011 assessment is $2.276, but check out the history of this near-the Merritt property. It was offered for sale as a building lot for $500,000 in 1996 and sold for $255,000 in 1997. You can always improve on a pile of dirt, but you can’t move the location of that dirt. What sold at half price in 1997 will still sell at a discount today (then again, I notice that the agent has failed to paint in fluffy little clouds in the listing picture, so perhaps that’s why this won’t sell).

It’s off to Wyoming to find a new home

But Bill Ayers promised we could stay!

Obama’s vacation paradise on the Vineyard sold out from under him. For just $22 million. Where are the Messiah’s friends when he needs them?

n.b.  Because we are a full service blog, we offer herewith the lyrics to “Git Along Little Doggies”

Old Greenwich continues to impress

The owners of Eleven Brown House Road paid $1.665 million for it in July, 2009, did nothing worth mentioning to it (according to its listing) and put it back up for sale at $2.050 last week. I happen to know the owners and like them very much, but I didn’t believe they’d get that price in this market. Ha! It’s under contract today, just 7 days later.

UPDATE: Two more Old Greenwich contracts announced this morning. 12 Wahneta (south of the village) had to drop its price from $2.595 to $2.395 before it found a buyer. Owners paid $2.6 million for it in 2010.

So okay, that’s not so impressive, but 13 Webb Avenue, just around the corner from Brown House (but remember my warning about the differences between micro-neighborhoods), built in 1882 and recently renovated, has a contract while asking $1.695. If that’s not a record for this street, it’s probably close.

Bloom off the rose

114 E. Elm, a townhouse in the Arbor Rose condo development, has dropped its price again and is now asking $2.295, quite a fall from its 2006 dream asking price of $3.525. There was a time, particularly when these were new in 2004, when the units sold quickly. Not so much, now.

Why is Greenwich Time deifying Daniel Malloy?

 Descending from Mt. Hartford [and yes, I know Moses was involved in a similar feat]

Yet another article on our Governor, this time applauding his overcoming a horrible tormented childhood, one replete with flesh-eating rats, daily beatings and growing up in a dumpster. I don’t remember such a series on previous governors, not even one following Rowland’s time in prison, which would have been far more interesting.

So why now? I can only conclude that Bob Horton has seized editorial control.

This should put him over the top

The smell of burning wood

Quayle endorses Romney. Well, off the edge, at any rate.

Uh oh

 

Swiss francs, please

Germany gives up on Euro for the weak sisters? Inevitable, of course, but I expected a few more weeks of playing pretend.

Grand delusions and the optimism of home owners

35 Andersen Farm Road, a 4-acre building site, has once again expired unsold. It was first placed for sale in 2005 priced at $3.850 million. The owner tried $2.875 in 2007, when things were “choppy”, to use the latest term adopted by real estate agents and financial gurus to describe markets gone to hell, then, convinced that things were better, raised the price in 2010 to $3.350 million, where it stuck, until today. Assessment is $1.475, if you’re interested, and that may be high.

Apple to apple

Fifty-five Burning Tree sold for $2,187,500 in 2005, $2.1 million in 2008 and expired today, unsold, asking $1.875.

Suicide watch, continued

No Jap food for these gents

It’s Pearl harbor Day so Sidwell Friends School is serving Japanese fare, doubtless to further the Quaker doctrine of mortal sin (of westerners) and surrender. Obama’s kids go here. Coinkydink? I think not.

Long ago I attended Quaker meeting and then a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, PA. I am still ashamed.

The suicide watch for modern civilization continues apace

Back to the future

School head turns off heat in the building on coldest day of the year so that children can learn how to be eco-friendly and green. Why is  “The World Without Us” an international best seller? Because there are millions of brainwashed useful idiots out there willing, even eager to listen to evildoers who want to bring our world to a crashing ruin. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put fluoride in the water next.

I trust my readers, you must trust me (but only so far as my bad jokes)

I’m not writing for idiots (well, Mr. Bill, maybe) so I trust you to be literate and to get my little jokes. If I quote Ryan, not Carl Sandburg, I know that you won’t confuse a ball player with a poet. Please give me the same credit. You may not appreciate the joke – your choice, and that’s both perfectly understandable and a sign of good taste, but please acknowledge that I’m probably no less versed than you are.

Now as to  economics or politics, feel free to fire away and correct me.