Well of course he didn’t – it would have ruined the message

Ditch the tie, go with the flag pin on your tit

Obama held a press conference today, the sole point of which was to show that he’d interrupted his well-earned vacation and flown down to Washington to take care of the nation’s business. He said nothing, and did nothing, but that’s irrelevant. “Message: I care” was the order of the day.

So of course he didn’t wear a tie at the conference. Not, as some speculate, out of a lack of respect for the country he serves – he never had any – but to complete the picture. Here’s a guy who should be on vacation for crissake, who’s come back into the office to handle an (unspecified) emergency, so he can’t wear a tie  – a blazer hurriedly tossed on, a brief appearance before the cameras to reassure the nation, then back to work!

There is nothing; absolutely nothing authentic about this man.

Charged with murder in Bali, he’s worried that he’s being dissed

 

Last meal

Suitcase murderer Tommy Schaefer has complained to authorities that he was disrespected by being offered  Kentucky Fried Chicken

Police sources said the couple had been given KFC chicken to eat and this had angered Mack’s boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, who told police it was insulting as he has black skin and KFC is for the lower echelons of society.

Police were taken aback at this allegation, claiming that in Bali KFC is expensive for the average income earner and not at all for the lower wage earners.

In America, on the other hand, even half-whites can enjoy the treat without shame.

Tastes like squirrel

I don’t think even Walt could do that

 

Do you know who we are?

Porn star who filmed in church arrested after resident claims he “recognized her breasts”. I’m not saying that all breasts look alike, but there’s a basic similarity that makes me wonder how anyone viewing this pair could tag them to one particular girl.

Better’n poisoning pigeons in the park

 

Squirrel Pie a la The Colonel

Pigeon poisoning’s a springtime activity anyway, but Squirrel season’s upon us*, so it’s time to repeat Uncle Festus’s world famous recipe for squirrel pie.

*In Kentucky, where this article originates. Season opens September 1 here in the Nutmeg State – duck!

Unfortunately, his paper boy doesn’t make deliveries up island

Why do bad things only happen to ME?

Obama: “I only learned that the National Guard had been mobilized in Ferguson when I read about it in the paper”.

“Anyone who is the least bit familiar with how President Obama governs knows that he only learns of bad news from what is reported by you,” White House spokesman Candice Bergen told reporters in response to their skepticism that even Barry O could be so clueless, “and he won’t read the news when he’s vacationing. We had to ease him into this, first by luring him onto his plane – we tossed his Titleist in there – so that he felt he was working, kind of, and then had the steward ‘accidentally’ drop a copy of the WaPo on his fold-down tray. He’s up to speed on it now, though – the country can relax.”

And two more contracts at close of day

 

5 Brown House Rd

5 Brown House Road, Riverside East. $1.225 million. This sat on the market back in 2008 for a year, but couldn’t get $1.150. This time,it came and went in three weeks.

 

16 Cross Lane

16 Cross Lane, Riverside West, $1.350. Sold in 11 days – really?

Even on Saline, the Mickster is thinking of us

St. Barts: Like a lovable sea turtle, The Mickster scrambles towards the waters of Saline Beach

And he sends along these wonderful photographs of how not to show your house. All actual ads, culled from various websites. Click on the link for the full catalogue.

Man Cave

Toiletries room

Back yard paradise

Contracts reported

 

36 Shore Rd

36 Shore Road, Old Greenwich, asking $2.995 million. Nice house, great location.

 

27 Stillman Lane

27 Stillman Lane, Byram. New construction, $5.199 million.

Obama meets with his National Security Council in D.C.

 

Getting’ down to bidness wit Alonzo and friends

Top secret, except for the photo-op which was the point of this million-dollar round trip from the Vineyard in the first place.

His playing partners  security advisors include close friend and basketball star Alonzo Mourning and White House aide Marvin Nicholson.

Sadly, this is connected to Bill Whittle’s video on “The Struggle for Stupidity” posted below

Finally, a clearly-labeled news source for Dollar Bill

Walt sends along this link: FaceBook to add “satire” label to stories that are confusing readers.

Facebook is experimenting with a “satire” tag on the free content ad network to help users with reading comprehension problems to distinguish the real news from parody pieces.

The po-faced decision to editorialise such links on Facebook’s News Feed remains an experiment for now, the Mark Zuckerberg-run firm told Ars Technica, which first spotted the “satire” tag.

The tag only appears in a user’s News Feed after they have clicked on, for example, an Onion link via the desktop version of Facebook. Related articles from the parody site then appear below that story with the word “Satire” wrapped in parenthesis in front of the headline.

As noted by Ars, the Onion‘s “Police officer Doesn’t See A Difference Between Black, Light-Skinned Black Suspects” piece becomes “[Satire] Police officer Doesn’t See A Difference Between Black, Light-Skinned Black Suspects”.

Facebook confessed in a statement that some of its users were a bit thick:

We are running a small test which shows the text ‘[Satire]’ in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.

Round Hill Road possibility?

 

365 Round Hill Rd

365 Round Hill Road, asking $1.599. It’s on just 0.9 of an acre in the R-4 zone so thanks to our Planning & Zoning geniuses, you can only build a 2,700 sq.ft. home here (compared to the 5,292 sq.ft. the P&Z has determined is the “perfect size” for the one-acre zone, or the 8,820 sq.ft. home you’d be allowed in the R-20 zone), and it’s got a failed septic system, but it’s still an acre in a decent part of town. That’s if you can put up with the neighbors, but they’re mostly all out of town for indeterminate periods, depending on good behavior and appeals.

Dollar Bill’s dilemma

 

$Bill’s no longer

He’s sold his home at 44 Bruce Park Drive and left town (I was aware of this but, because I’m a far nicer person than he, I didn’t bash him, or the house, while it was on the market).  The dilemma he faced was this: although he paid $1.525 million for it in 2007, his final asking price this time around was $1.375, and he received multiple offers – would he stick to his word, and sell his home at the price he asked for, or abandon his principles, go with the profit motive and sell it, not to the most deserving of buyers, but the one who had the most cash?

He sold it for $1.406 million.

Oh, I hope I hope I hope this is true

 

Kill kill kill

Business Insider, not a consistently reliable source of solid news, reports that the Kurds have fielded all-female battalions that are the most fearsome thing the ISIS have faced because, if you get killed by a girl, you don’t get to go to Islam heaven.

Fire straight, ladies, and often. From your barrel to Allah’s ear.

Byram apartment complex for sale

 

61 Byram Terrace

61 Byram Terrace, nine brand new units, $7.425 million (down from its 2012-2013 price of $7.995). They look very nice, and Byram Terrace is a good street, but can you make a reasonable return at $825 a unit at this end of town? My guess is that you probably could; they rented one unit for $5,450 per month this past July, but then again, if it were possible, would the developer be throwing in the towel and unloading them?

Who’s Russ think he is, David Ogilvy?

 

An unfortunate adventure in architecture, 20 Thunder Mountain Road

20 Thunder Mountain Road cut by $3 million, $6.995 from $9.995. In fairness to Mr. Pruner, idiotic prices are often the idea of the seller, and it takes a while to bring them to (or in this case, closer to) reason.

But this house’s pricing has always been adventurous. Back when it was still under construction in 2007, Doug Stevens reported it as sold for $7.325 million. After a bit of prodding from a local real estate blogger, who’d gone to town hall and looked at the deed, that number was re-reported, this time at $4,692,928. The difference, Mr. Stevens explained, was that he’d estimated “what the house would have been worth had it been finished”. By that logic, I pointed out then, the price could have been bumped over $20 million, “assuming that all the fixtures were cast from gold”.

Anyway, here it is, at a new price.

(But check the comments – the interior is fantastic)

Friday sales

(Details from two of these have already stripped from public access by Greenwich Association of Realtors, the remaining two will soon follow)

UPDATE, 1:08 – all links are now devoid of detail. Thank you, GAR.

18 Tomney Rd

18 Tomney Rd., $1.465 million. Sold for $1.295 in 2003. Perhaps the house being on such a tilt hurt its value.

 

26 Byfield Lane

26 Byfield Lane, $2.050 million. On market just 6 days.

 

33 Alpine Rd

33 Alpine Road, $3.2 million. Perfectly nice, renovated home, but I think top dollar for this aging house has been met. We’ll see what the next sale fetches.

1 Sylvan Lane

One Sylvan Lane, Old Greenwich, $1.835 million. This sold for $1.750 in 2003, was offered for sale at $2.5ish in 2007 after extensive renovations but ended up selling for just $1.620  in 2010. This current sale would, after the cost of those renovations, bring it just about back to 2003 levels.

At least dead people can’t have their civil rights abused

(Trigger) Happy Days are Here Again

In the new New York of Mayor Bill, “No Frisk” de Blasio, guns return to the streets. Fifteen shot in 8 hours.

I blame Bush.

Oh, the heartbreak

 

Harvard grads enjoy happy hour

Harvard alumni up in arms over curtailing of free drinks at their club.

“I can barely afford to garage my Tesla”, investment banker Cornelius Cadwallader Lodge, Harvard 2011, complained to FWIW, “and now they expect me to pay for my own drinks? I may just demand the return of my Feminist Studies chair endowment – outrageous”.

Jesus wept.

“Cut his vacation short”? Gimme a (scheduled) break

Horseshit Magazine, circa 1967

As announced he would even before he blew out of D.C. last week, Obama has cut short his vacation to return to Washington to consult with staff.” The ostensible reason is the riots occasioned by the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Missouri, but don’t worry; Barry will have solved that and be back on the greens tomorrow, we are assured.

Even the usually pro-Obama AP is a tad skeptical:

In a rare move for him, the president took a break in the middle of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to return to Washington just after midnight Monday for meetings with Vice President Joe Biden and other advisers on the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and tensions between police and protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.

The White House has been cagey about why the president needs to be back in Washington for those discussions. He’s received multiple briefings on both issues while on vacation. The White House had also already announced Obama’s plans to return to Washington before the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq began and before the shooting of a teen in Ferguson that sparked protests.

Part of the decision to head back to Washington appears aimed at countering criticism that Obama is spending two weeks on a resort island in the midst of so many foreign and domestic crises.

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! “After midnight! – Wow, the poor man is working so hard for us, he’s up late at night, leaving his beloved family to jet through the darkness to save us from peril.  

Horseshit. We reported here on August 9th,  (repeated here, actually, from Keith Koffler’s blog, White House Dossier), while Obama was  still staging a phony photo-op minutes before leaving on vacation, and while Mike Brown was still hale and hearty and robbing 7-11s, that he’d be returning today for unspecified “meetings” this Sunday night.

At that time the White House couldn’t say who, exactly the turkey would be meeting with, or why, because they didn’t know – “but he’ll be meeting with someone, just as soon as we can figure out who’s still left in town – maybe the fucking custodian, what do I know?” White House spokesman Jeb Magruder said.

Potemkin Village, all the way down. Staged photos, pre-scheduled “emergency” flights in the dead of night; the White House has outsourced its PR department to the North Koreans.