This weekend was pretty much perfect, weather-wise. Temperatures in the high 70s, sunny, really nice. So of course I woke up Sunday feeling lousy, didn’t get much better, thought I’d read a little until I felt peppier, then had a bad attack of vertigo. It lasted a couple hours, wouldn’t respond to any of the home remedies I tried. (It’s called the Epley maneuver, tried it three times, zilch.) Just had to wait it out, and it lasted two or three hours.
However, it was pleasant to lie on the bed with the birdies tweeting outside, writing my own obituary in my head, based on my assessments of exactly what sort of brain tumor I no doubt have.
At least I didn’t throw up this time. Progress!
The state Republican convention was this weekend. I checked the tweets from time to time. It started quiet, ended loud, and the two Trump-endorsed candidates for attorney general and secretary of state won the party’s endorsement. (They did an “endorsement” convention for some offices this year, to clear the decks for a full summer of campaigning, although the gubernatorial slate of 10 count ’em 10 candidates will have to fight it out in August.
The now-officially-endorsed AG nominee is a nightmare, fired from one firm for padding billings and equally unsuccessful advancing his election-fraud suits after 2020. The SOS candidate is a religious nut…
,,,with no election experience. She, too, has advanced claims of misconduct in 2020 not supported by any evidence. She also calls herself a college professor, because she teaches two classes at Wayne County Community College — public speaking and the how-to-be-a-college-student class you often find in community and junior colleges, where students are frequently first-generation students.
For the record, I doubt either one will win. But as 2016 demonstrated, one must never say never. Which brings us to this piece from a few days back:
In statehouses and courtrooms across the country, as well as on right-wing news outlets, allies of Mr. Trump — including the lawyer John Eastman — are pressing for states to pass resolutions rescinding Electoral College votes for President Biden and to bring lawsuits that seek to prove baseless claims of large-scale voter fraud. Some of those allies are casting their work as a precursor to reinstating the former president.
The efforts have failed to change any statewide outcomes or uncover mass election fraud. Legal experts dismiss them as preposterous, noting that there is no plausible scenario under the Constitution for returning Mr. Trump to office.
But just as Mr. Eastman’s original plan to use Congress’s final count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the election was seen as far-fetched in the run-up to the deadly Capitol riot, the continued efforts are fueling a false narrative that has resonated with Mr. Trump’s supporters and stoked their grievances. They are keeping alive the same combustible stew of conspiracy theory and misinformation that threatens to undermine faith in democracy by nurturing the lie that the election was corrupt.
And people like these will no doubt be very useful in the future. Which is why turnout in November will be very, very important and if the Democrats don’t start acting that way, I’m gonna scream.
Couple of updates:
Kevin has moved on. On Wednesday we had some work done on the house, a sagging staircase buttressed for the next 70 years or so. It would be POUNDING and DRILLING and STRANGE MEN GOING UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS, all of which would make Kevin basically MELT DOWN.
So I took him to daycare. I told the lady at the front desk his story, went home, and two hours later the phone rang. It was another staffer, saying he’d fallen in love and if I really wanted to place him somewhere else, would I consider him?
Would I consider him? A guy who could take him to all-day play every single day? Oh yes I would. And I think this is now a happy ending:
Sometimes a match just doesn’t work out. On a day like today, when I had to spend hours in bed, I’m reminded what a good idea this was.
OK, into the week feeling faintly nauseated. Sounds about right. Hopes yours is better.
Ann said on April 24, 2022 at 10:24 pm
That’s great news about Kevin. I’ve had too many friends stick with dogs that really really don’t fit in with their lives and the results are usually pretty unpleasant (and in at least two cases have involved lawsuits). Have you read or heard the “This American Life” about Ira Glass’s dog Piney? https://www.thisamericanlife.org/480/transcript (last story). Horrifying. So great work. I hope the vertigo clears up.
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alex said on April 24, 2022 at 10:42 pm
Strange, I’ve had vertigo since I woke up Saturday. I had some mild nausea, vomiting and diarrhea immediately upon wakening but then didn’t feel otherwise ill except for being dizzy and unsteady and feeling faint on exertion.
One of the staff at a restaurant where we dined Friday night confided that several key employees were home with some illness and she was concerned about whether she’d catch whatever it was.
Can’t tell if it has totally passed as I decided to just take it easy today.
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LAMary said on April 25, 2022 at 12:54 am
I gave my very sweet cat Clementine to go live with my son, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s mother. Clementine was my cat, a beautiful calico. When I adopted her at the shelter I also adopted a four month old kitten named Potato. Clemmie didn’t have a name and she was a full grown cat, looking very unhappy in a little cage. He colors were very vibrant and she was looking me with a steady gaze. I adopted them both and all was fine until Potato got older and started attacking Clementine and she knew how to fight back. It got so neither really had much quality of life, stalking each other, screeching. Especially Clem. She hid most of the time. When son’s girlfriend’s cat died I thought maybe Clem would be better off being an only cat so sadly and reluctantly I sent her over to their household. I cried because I knew I’d miss her and because I didn’t know if she would settle in. Well, she has. She has a Tik Tok account now, a basket full of toys, and as much attention as she wants, uninterrupted by Potato beating her up. Potato on the other hand is more affectionate and more likely to sit next near me while I work, sunning himself and occasionally wanting a little scratching on the muzzle.
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Dexter Friend said on April 25, 2022 at 1:39 am
My homeless grandson begged me to take him in “for a few weeks, please” last summer and I was leery, but he was getting kicked out of his aunt & uncle’s place and had no one who would allow him as a resident, as he is a junkie, pure and simple. Saturday night he went sort of berserk, screaming , yelling all night as he was dumped by his new girlfriend. I got no sleep and a few times had my phone ready to call for the whitecoats to come take him to some hospital. Well, his car was diagnosed with a leak, so of course he drives it to Toledo and it leaks out all the fluids; we were to go to my daughter’s for a belated Easter dinner but I felt sick dealing with this 31 year old teenager. It is a mess for sure, as he got busted AGAIN for fentanyl last Saturday and has court in Bowling Green in 7 days. So my weekend was totally fucked. He is staying down by Findlay tonight, as my daughter drove to Toledo to get him and he’s staying there overnight as he says he ordered a part that will fix his car. He misses so much work I do not understand how he keeps a job. And according to the news, nationwide, rents are doubling, so how will he ever be able to get an apartment. I am trying to take this calmly, as I have medical issues, and have to check my blood pressure twice a day. So far, I have not blown the blood pressure machine up.
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alex said on April 25, 2022 at 7:29 am
Nancy, I just read that vertigo can be triggered by reflux or indigestion, if that’s of any reassurance. Stomach acid can cause inflammation of the inner ear.
I distinctly recall tossing and turning with heartburn all of Friday night. I had a smoked salmon and pasta dish that was so rich I couldn’t finish it and evidently I couldn’t digest it either.
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basset said on April 25, 2022 at 8:00 am
We spent most of the weekend in Mayberry, Andy Griffith’s hometown of Mt. Airy, NC… went to the Andy museum, saw his former home, visited the reproductions of various Mayberry landmarks, bought the t-shirts, so on. so forth. A nice break from stress and tension, we’ll see how long it takes for someone to confront me in my “Taylor/Fife ‘24” shirt and claim Barney was a secret liberal or something.
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ROGirl said on April 25, 2022 at 8:16 am
I still felt like shit yesterday, am doing much better today. I slept more than I have in a long time. My arm isn’t painful, still a bit sore. Glad to hear that Kevin will be in a setting where he will be able to do his thing.
Vive la France!
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alex said on April 25, 2022 at 8:17 am
They were all secret liberals. Never set foot in Mt. Airy. I mean, look what became of Opie.
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Jeff Borden said on April 25, 2022 at 9:48 am
Wonderful news about Kevin. He’ll have a great life.
While reading online about the Gathering of the tRumpkins in Delaware, Ohio, I was struck by the comments of a couple of MAGAts who attended. They were not particularly in love with Grandson of Meemaw, ’cause he said all those horrible things about tRump five years ago, but boy howdy did they love a guy named Joe Blystone, a farmer who calls himself a “Constitutional conservative” and favors wearing cowboy hats. One of them said Blystone, who wants to be governor, “looks like a kickass Western cowboy” and, of course, that’s just what the Buckeye State needs in the governor’s chair. Nothing on the man’s outlook, philosophy, proposals. . .it’s just enough that he looks like a cowboy.
We are sooooo fucked.
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nancy said on April 25, 2022 at 9:51 am
I saw a billboard for Blystone on my way into Columbus (in a rural area). My sister had never heard of him, so I looked him up. The Cincinnati Enquirer — a paper once respected — actually identified him as “Farmer Joe Blystone.” Jesus fucking wept.
FWIW, I don’t think he’s going to win. He’s fringe even among the fringe.
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Deborah said on April 25, 2022 at 11:41 am
We spent the weekend in Rockford, IL where uncle J used to live. We visited with his family, lots of his little great grandkids, it’s fun watching them grow and develop. I went to the beautiful Japanese gardens there and walked around with one of uncle J’s former caregivers who has become a good friend.
Today the rest of our window blinds are being repaired, they have tilting problems. So we have to move the furniture further away from the windows all around so they have room to work. Two sides of our unit are floor to ceiling windows so this is a pain. And Thursday my husband’s sister is coming over so this will be a cleaning week. The good thing is It’s not that hard to clean, the place is so small.
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Suzanne said on April 25, 2022 at 11:49 am
What I can never understand is why people are so enamored with electing people who have no government experience. If you work in a bank, do you want your new boss to be someone who knows nothing about how a bank works except that he has a savings account? Do you want the person running the local hardware store where you work to be someone who has never run a business before? We have all worked somewhere that brought in consultants who made crazy suggestions about how to run an organization that they clearly know nothing about.
Government has its own rules and regulations and traditions. It’s fine to look at it and figure out a better or more efficient way to do things, but to think that someone who doesn’t know how government works and doesn’t want to know will be able to step in and do the job is magical thinking.
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Jenny Derringer said on April 25, 2022 at 1:29 pm
So glad to hear that Kevin has moved on. The new owner may regret his decision, but Kevin didn’t seem to be a good fit for your household. I think I just heard Wendy exhale.
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jcburns said on April 25, 2022 at 1:37 pm
Wait, Wendy’s still around? Oh. Ohhhhhh.
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Julie Robinson said on April 25, 2022 at 1:47 pm
From his goofy smile it looks like Kevin is very happy indeed. Nance gets angel wings for giving him a way to his new life, and the new owner gets his angel wings too.
From stories I’ve read, Mt. Airy has devolved, so better to stick with the tourist version.
The Robinson Covid saga continued with a little trip to the ER for my mom after she went downhill fast last night and a teledoc said to take her in. Fortunately Sarah has recovered and is feeling quite perky (thank you, steroids!) so she accompanied her and found cat videos to entertain her for five hours. Chest Xray was clear and they sent her home with zero meds, saying they aren’t effective on the new variant.
I’m having a few symptoms but still testing negative; go figure.
Sherri, I keep meaning to ask, after your positive test did you ever develop any symptoms?
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Deborah said on April 25, 2022 at 2:16 pm
I’m conflicted, apparently Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter has gone through. I really love reading people’s tweets, I never post, but if Trump is allowed back on, I’m outta there. Just think how much more time I’ll have to do other things!
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Jeff Gill said on April 25, 2022 at 2:19 pm
For what it’s worth, Joe Blystone’s neighbors won’t vote for him. He’s burned quite a few bridges in front of him, let alone behind.
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Jeff Borden said on April 25, 2022 at 2:28 pm
Suzanne,
You have to accept that 40-plus years of conservatives telling people government is bad has resulted in the widespread belief on the right that there is NOTHING a government employee can do that wouldn’t be done better by an outsider from the private sector.
It’s the same with the slur on elites. I rather like having an elite dentist replace a crown, but then, I’m a leftist scum dog.
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tajalli said on April 25, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Heh, heh. Wonder how much luck they’ll have collecting, though.
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Scout said on April 25, 2022 at 3:10 pm
It’s official. Leon Skum now owns Twitter.
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Icarus said on April 25, 2022 at 3:41 pm
LAMary, whatever happened with that double tax payment and subsequent autopayments on your bank account?
my contract gig is finally coming to an end in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I’ve had a half dozen interviews that seemed promising but didn’t pan out. It sucks a certain way when people [within your industry] who use to call you for help are saying you’re not good enough to work with them now.
I’m also having to pass up some law firm opportunities because they won’t hire someone even for remote work if they don’t have an office in your state, tax reasons supposedly.
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Deborah said on April 25, 2022 at 3:43 pm
I just read on Twitter that republicans told the board of Twitter that if they didn’t sell to Musk Twitter would get political retribution like they did with Disney. What ever happened to government staying out of business? Such hypocrisy.
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Mark zp said on April 25, 2022 at 4:32 pm
Nice little business you got there Mr Twitter. Be a shame if something happened to it.
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Mark P said on April 25, 2022 at 5:05 pm
Republicans think Musk will open Twitter to all content without moderation, and will bring Trump back on. They are salivating at the prospect of a big platform for their lies. Musk has actually made public comments along those lines.
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Colleen said on April 25, 2022 at 5:34 pm
Awww. Kevin looks so happy!
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Sherri said on April 25, 2022 at 5:50 pm
Julie, I had a sore throat for a couple of days and was a little low energy, but that was about it. I was a little more congested as well, but now I’m back to the usual level of allergy runny nose. But it’s day 7 and I’m still testing positive.
This whole personal responsibility approach to public health is really crazy. The CDC says, if you’re vaxxed, isolate for five days, then wear a mask for five more days, and then you’re good to go! Well, my husband was still testing positive on day 10. What do you do then?
This is really relevant to me because I have to make a decision about whether to do my powerlifting meet this Saturday. It’s after the 10 day CDC period, but will I test negative by then? Really hard to say. I’ve been preparing for this meet for three months, but it’s indoors, most people won’t be wearing masks, and there will probably be people there who are unvaccinated. I’m not at risk, but what is my responsibility to others?
I was going to wear a mask regardless, but do I just stop testing, so I don’t ask questions I don’t want to know the answer to? Do I give up this meet because other people won’t get vaxxed and won’t wear masks?
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David C said on April 25, 2022 at 6:15 pm
If Musk fucks up Twitter, and I have every confidence that he will, someone will start up an alternate site. My understanding is the underlying code for Twitter isn’t all that complicated. If he lets tRump back on and starts OKing Russian propaganda, which is one thing he said he’s a free speech absolutist about, I’m gone. I’ll find something else to waste my time with.
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Julie Robinson said on April 25, 2022 at 6:25 pm
The doctor told us five days after you develop symptoms, but Matt is still testing positive. Like Sherri this is important to him because he and his gf have pricey tickets tomorrow night for a concert that has already been postponed once. Gf is still testing negative, which just doesn’t seem possible to me, except that I am too.
And when is it okay for me to go out? I suspect in this one I will err on the side of caution and he will err on the side of taking the gf to Jacob Collier.
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Dorothy said on April 25, 2022 at 7:48 pm
My son has had Covid twice – July 2020 and January 2022. Neither time did his wife catch it, nor their daughter. Go figure.
Glad about Kevin getting re-homed but sad that your vertigo is rearing it’s head again. Fingers crossed it goes away pretty quickly. And I’m sorry Covid is tearing through the Robinson household. I feel like virtually everyone I know has had it now. But I haven’t and neither has my husband. We really need to schedule our second booster.
I too will abandon Twitter if Trump gets back on there. I’m sure there will be a massive exodus. Why didn’t Musk do something so much more worthwhile with $55 billion?!
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Sherri said on April 25, 2022 at 9:02 pm
Billionaires are a policy failure.
I called our county public health Covid call line with my question of what to do if I test positive on day 10, and the answer is, they have no guidance for that situation. King County public health goes beyond the CDC in that they say if you test positive on a rapid antigen test on day 5, you should isolate through day 10. Day 10 for me will be Thursday, and at this point, I’m inclined to go to my meet.
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LAMary said on April 25, 2022 at 9:15 pm
The double tax thing. After the initial panic and heartburn, I tried to call the IRS which was pointless on April 18. Then I called the bank and the guy I got in customer service said that I could do a stop payment but since there were two identical amounts it would likely stop both of them and the IRS would come after me. I called my brother who knows a lot about tax stuff. He was a financial analyst before he retired. He said try the bank again. He said the IRS would take forever to refund the money if ever, since the IRS is like the Pope. Infallible. So I called the bank again, got a great customer service rep who said that transactions have numbers and they could stop on based on the number. It would cost 30 bucks but that beats having a large negative bank balance so I went for it. The next day I had a bunch of overdraft fees for automatic payments I set up. The bank waived them. Day after that I was back in the black and the IRS was a few thousand dollars poorer. The helpful customer service woman got a great review on the “would you be willing to take a quick customer service survey” thing. She was a positive representative of Karens.
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alex said on April 25, 2022 at 9:52 pm
Va va voom! House porn. Get a glimpse while it lasts. Here’s betting it’s snagged already and the listing will come down soon.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15411-Woodcliffe-Trl_Fort-Wayne_IN_46845_M31885-05602?ex=2942414860
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Sherri said on April 25, 2022 at 10:14 pm
On Peter Thiel and the New Right: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets
I read some of Curtis Yarvin’s stuff way back when he was writing as Menicius Moldbug and it was big in certain SiliValley circles, and I thought then what this article makes me think now: none of these people are nearly as smart as they think they are, and that include Peter Thiel. It also makes me think that there is someone not mentioned in this article who could take the Trump path to the presidency, the unconventional outsider path, and it’s Joe Rogan.
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LAMary said on April 25, 2022 at 11:28 pm
Alex, roughly the same price house in LA: https://tinyurl.com/4u5bkxxv
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Mark P said on April 26, 2022 at 12:47 am
About 35 or 40 years ago my brother and his family moved from New Kinsington, Pa, near Pittsburgh, to San Diego. His wife couldn’t believe how much housing was, and I believe a good three-bedroom in a suburb was $200,000+. After they had been there a couple of years my brother joked that if they sold and moved back to Pennsylvania they would have to buy the governor’s mansion.
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Dorothy said on April 26, 2022 at 7:09 am
It’s not every day I get to see New Kensington mentioned online! Mark P – we make a similar joke. If we are driving in a rural community and see a house that is waaaaaay more fancy than the ones around it, we always call it ‘The Mayor’s House.’
First thing I saw on Facebook this morning was a post by a friend of a friend who felt sick at work yesterday (works for an airlines in Texas) and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Her symptoms? Dizziness, vomiting, blood pressure was 194/102 etc. The diagnosis was vertigo and she’s to follow up with an ENT specialist.
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alex said on April 26, 2022 at 7:24 am
It’s all location, location, as they say.
What floors me is that the half-million house was worth significantly less just a year or two ago and now will be subject to an intense bidding war between cash buyers and will sell well upward of the asking price.
I’m not sure why the demand for housing is outstripping the supply so drastically. They’re building like crazy and for the same money, you can buy a brand new but much lesser house than that one in a treeless addition and hemmed in on a tiny lot. Here’s one offered for $100K more on a lot one-third the size and the house doesn’t even have one-tenth the charm:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/148-Artisan-Pass_Fort-Wayne_IN_46845_M47239-73404?ex=2942258954
I mean, look at all the fabulous wooden cabinetry in the former and the pressboard shit in the latter. The beautiful views in the former and the relative lack of windows and natural light in the latter. The architectural interest of the former and the tacked-on trim passing for the same in the latter.
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alex said on April 26, 2022 at 9:26 am
And builder-grade “tit lights” in the bedrooms!
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Deborah said on April 26, 2022 at 10:22 am
My laptop won’t start, my husband joked that it must have something to do with Elon Musk. It’s 10 years old, time to take it to the Apple store (again).
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JodiP said on April 26, 2022 at 10:32 am
I hope Kevin’s new home works out and that your vertigo got better quickly.
Dexter @2, that sounds godawful. I hope you can have better luck not getting sucked into all the drama…that was the point of his moving out.
My MIL’s home is a nothing special split level 4 BR 3 bath in a bland suburb around here. “Coming soon” went out last Tuesday. Close to 70 showings in 3 days, 5 offers. Listed for $375,000, offer signed for $416,000, and if the the inspection turns up something, no worries, buyers will deal with it. I think the lowest offer was $405,000.
In today’s dollars, I spent about $165,000 on our story and half charming 1914 craftsman lite home in ’95. I think we could sell for $375,000, especially after the kitchen remodel coming up in the fall. With that completed, all the major stuff will be done from top to bottom. We love our house so much!
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LAMary said on April 26, 2022 at 10:44 am
Nothing for less than a million on my street. Probably not in my entire neighborhood. I’m not bragging. I think it’s crazy. Based on what places around me are going for I have about a million in equity. I paid 149k for the house in 1987 and had to refi and suck out some bucks to pay of the ex in 2016.
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Julie Robinson said on April 26, 2022 at 11:04 am
In our neighborhood 500K will get you a 3/1, 1100 sf, built in 1955. With mortgage rates increasing, I have to think we’re in a bubble. I was looking at the property taxes with longing, but then I reminded myself that Indiana and the county aren’t taking 5% of every bit of our income and I felt a little better.
Alex’s architect special is not a house for everyone, certainly not if you can’t climb stairs. And I caught myself side-eyeing those huge expanses of windows and wondering if they were single pane. I’d want to see the utility bills.
Since we are contemplating a host of repairs and remodels, I can see the appeal of a brand spanking new home. People can choose what’s right for them.
On a happy note, everyone here seems on the mend, if not 100% improved. I have no symptoms at all and since I’m quarantining I don’t see any point in sticking another swab up my nose.
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Jason T. said on April 26, 2022 at 11:50 am
Mark P. and Dorothy, house prices within the City of Pittsburgh are starting to escalate quickly, but out in the suburbs (and I guess New Ken is technically a suburb, though people in New Ken might disagree), you can still find a brick 3-bedroom house with a garage and a small yard for under $200,000. In some neighborhoods, well under.
And of course, because of the weird municipal boundaries, depending where you’re buying in the Pittsburgh metro, you can buy real estate for almost nothing. A friend bought this office building that’s about to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. $178K.
It is a bit of fixer-upper, to be sure: Peoples Union Bank & Trust Building
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alex said on April 26, 2022 at 12:09 pm
I could see that old bank building made over into cool loft spaces. Imagine having a whole floor as a living space and art studio or office.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2022 at 1:59 pm
House prices are surging here again; Zillow shows my neighborhood with nothing under $2 million. Rents are also climbing again.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2022 at 3:32 pm
A woman I used to work with in St. Louis bought an old telephone company building and turned it into a dwelling for she and her partner. They’re both architects so that helps. They call it their BAB, or Big Ass Building and they’re doing a lot of the work themselves. They have a blog about their project https://822wilmington.wordpress.com/. That bank building that Jason T linked to reminded me of it.
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Jason T. said on April 26, 2022 at 4:21 pm
Alex & Dorothy: Because of the high preponderance of low-income housing in the downtown area, the mayor is trying to discourage any new rental units until some businesses start to return to the business district.
I get his point, and I’m on his development committee — but I think there’s potential for lofts, and if not rentals, then condos, in a building like that. We’ll see. We’re fighting uphill against 40 years of disinvestment.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2022 at 5:03 pm
Madison Cawthorn might want to find some more lingerie pictures to release today as a distraction.
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alex said on April 26, 2022 at 6:08 pm
Jason, I get where your mayor is coming from. He’s perhaps a bit shortsighted.
Here in the Fort we’ve had a fantastic downtown renaissance in no small part due to the conversion of antiquated office buildings into high-end housing. In turn, the blighted neighborhoods on the fringe are now commanding top dollar and gentrifying and it’s suddenly a place where people with money want to live again.
It was a hard sell here at first too, and it will surely take years to turn the tide in McKeesport, along with more efforts than just a single building, but when housing is in short supply and you’re offering something unique, it’s amazing how it sparks demand.
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Dorothy said on April 26, 2022 at 6:46 pm
Forgive me if I already mentioned what we sold our Dayton house for (I may have skated around the actual price), but we listed it for $300K and the best offer was $50K over that. And that’s what we sold it for. Nothing showed up in the inspection so we did really well, just as we’d hoped. That boost in price helped a lot with the basement design we did here in our new build. (The company that built our house did not do the basement work) We have a really nice set up here now, and if our health stays good, we should have a pretty nice retirement in the coming years. Many days here I still feel like I’m dreaming.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2022 at 7:02 pm
St. Louis was slow to get on the downtown lofts craze, we lived there until 2003 and they still hadn’t gotten it off the ground, and we would have been ripe for that. They finally got off the dime, and have a loft district that seemed popular from what I could tell, I don’t know how lucrative it is, I mean it’s St. Louis. For ages the bankers didn’t want to give mortgages to people to buy or fix up lofts but they finally caved, they were probably somewhat past the curve but I don’t really know.
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Colleen said on April 26, 2022 at 7:59 pm
Housing prices are going nuts in my neighborhood too….and it’s nothing special…a McNeighborhood like so many in Florida. But houses are selling fast and for ridiculous prices. I keep getting offers for us to pull out our equity…yeah, and be upside-down when the bubble bursts? No thanks.
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Little Bird said on April 27, 2022 at 12:05 pm
There’s a dilapidated boarded up shell of a house going for around $300k in my area. And nothing available for less. Housing in Santa Fe is insane. Even rental is stupid expensive here. Think an efficiency going for $1100 expensive.
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Scout said on April 27, 2022 at 12:22 pm
The Phoenix market is ridiculous. Our 1957 1400 sf ranch is now worth $500k. Because it is a small house on a large lot, we were hoping to downsize to a smaller lot with about the same size house. I thought we could get a bit newer and nicer home on a small lot for at least a lateral price move, but everything we looked at was more expensive yet crappy. I guess we’re staying put for now. Maybe buy some land after I retire and build a container home. All cash.
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Heather said on April 27, 2022 at 12:28 pm
I don’t even look at house prices in my neighborhood because it’s too depressing. Someone pulled down like seven houses in a row on one block and put up new contemporary buildings. The old ones were nothing special and I have no idea what shape they were in, but it’s a bit jarring.
I don’t know if anyone was following the Chicago Reader saga I have mentioned here before: the billionaire co-owner was refusing to sell the paper to a nonprofit, as planned for two years, because he was butthurt about an uproar about an anti-vaxx column he wrote that was riddled with misinformation. The more than four-month delay to transition to the nonprofit was causing real financial stress and needless to say a lot of emotional stress to the staff, many of whom were afraid they weren’t going to be able to pay rent if the money ran out, which it would soon do.
Anyway, long story short, after the union organized a protest by the owner’s house and national media picked up the story, he and his supporters stepped down from the board this week and the nonprofit transition will go forward. My beau is the union rep and it was a lot of work for him to manage the demands of organizing the union efforts while also doing his job. He was very emotional when he discovered that his job and the paper were safe. I’m glad it’s over and fingers crossed there will be no more such crises in the near future, as the staff has really been through the wringer.
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Deborah said on April 27, 2022 at 12:35 pm
Every once in a while I open NN.C just to look at that happy picture of Kevin, what a great life he’s having.
My laptop finally opened before I took it to the Apple store. I will probably regret not taking it in when I get to Santa Fe because the closest Apple store is 60 miles away in Albuquerque, which I think is the only Apple store in the state. I will probably try to take it in here in Chicago on Friday and hopefully whatever is wrong with it can get fixed before the following Friday when we leave for NM.
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Jenine said on April 27, 2022 at 1:11 pm
@Heather: that is a story with a good ending. Please congratulate your husband for me!
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Knowlson said on April 27, 2022 at 1:12 pm
We have a sagging staircase and I wouldn’t even know who to call to repair it. I’ve had no luck with contractors. Either they don’t return calls, or they show up and do bad work.
For about a year I was thrilled because I finally found a competent and honest plumbing/heating company. A few weeks ago I got a letter from them. The owner retired and sold the company to a different plumbing/heating company that I swore I’d never hire again because they were so horrible.
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Heather said on April 27, 2022 at 3:11 pm
Jenine @57, not my husband, but boyfriend! Although he did bring up moving in together the other day…
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alex said on April 27, 2022 at 3:33 pm
Meanwhile, in Fort Wayne…
(paywalled story so I’m pasting this weak reporting from a paper for which I could kick myself for giving money at this point)
Pompeo: ‘We’re going to reclaim America’
Trump secretary of state speaks at Lincoln Day dinner
JAMES D. WOLF JR. | The Journal Gazette
About 600 people gave former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a standing ovation Tuesday when he finished his keynote speech at the Allen County Republicans Lincoln Day Dinner.
Then they began to cheer when Steve Shine, chairman of Allen County Republicans, thanked Pompeo and while listing his accomplishments added “and quite possibly the next president of the United States of America.”
Pompeo’s speech was partially a call to action for the 2022 elections and focused on local officials.
“We’re going to reclaim America,” he said at the end. And that’s not just Washington, D.C., but locally, he added.
In the speech, Pompeo thanked the audience members for the work they do every day, political and nonpolitical, and asked them to come out as a party to support Republican candidates.
Pompeo served as director of the CIA under President Donald Trump before being moved into the secretary of state position.
“Some of you say you wish I was still there,” he told the audience. “I wish I was still there, too.”
Pompeo criticized the current administration on inflation and the 13 lives lost in Afghanistan and added that during Trump’s tenure as president, soldiers were not sent off to troubled places.
“We wanted young people home,” he said. When Trump left office, the U.S. had reduced the troops in Afghanistan from 50,000 to 2,200, he added.
Talking about the situation in Ukraine, Pompeo said he gets asked if the invasion would have happened under Trump.
“I can’t answer that,” he said. However, he did comment on Russia’s leader.
“Vladimir Putin hasn’t changed one inch,” he said, noting that Putin always wanted to rebuild the Soviet Union. “What changed,” Pompeo said, was Putin’s “perception of American strength,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo said the U.S. needs to give support to Ukraine. China is watching how we handle Ukraine.
“The Chinese Communist Party presents the single greatest external threat to the United States,” he said
“They are determined to destroy our way of life here.”
The Chinese stole billions in intellectual property from the United States through spying operations based in the consulate in Houston, Texas, and stole jobs, he said. The Trump administration closed the consulate.
Previous administrations were afraid of China’s response if they closed it, Pompeo said. However, China retaliated by closing a U.S. consulate in China.
Moving from international to domestic matters, Pompeo said, “The biggest threats are from things here at home.”
He said the country would be in trouble if Republicans lose the culture wars and the country walks away from its Judeo-Christian heritage
“We can’t teach our kids this is a racist nation,” he said. “We can’t teach our kids that there are more than two genders.”
Pompeo talked about meeting someone in Tennessee who was running for school board although he didn’t know where the school board met.
The audience at the dinner included notable people from the Indiana Republican Party, including Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Attorney General Todd Rokita, members of the Indiana House and Senate, and many candidates for local and state offices.
Shine said the Allen County Lincoln Day Dinner is one of the premier events in politics in the state.
“People have come all the way from Evansville to the south and Lake County to the north,” Shine said. “If you’re a Republican in the state of Indiana and you’re not here tonight, you’re in the wrong place.”
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nancy said on April 27, 2022 at 4:16 pm
I see Shine is still the greasy little shit he’s always been. I wonder if he drives to Michigan to get his weed now.
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alex said on April 27, 2022 at 6:23 pm
Wonder if Shine won’t end up with his head on a stick (that is if they can ever fish it out of his ass) for feting these neo-Nazis.
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