Less than a week after the ‘For Sale’ sign was up in our neighbor’s front yard, there’s a ‘SOLD’ sign, in bright red, all-cap letters. That’s crazy!
But, that’s happening out here in the San Francisco Bay Area… and out your way, from what I’ve been reading in the Daily Post… and, if we can pluralize the word ‘elsewhere’, in many other elsewheres, where home prices are getting… crazy!
And just guessing, about our neighbor’s place, there probably were multiple offers, and, maybe a bidding battle, and just maybe the house sold for more than the asking price?
In MarketWatch, I’m reading about “An Inflation storm” coming soon “for the U.S. housing market.” The storm’s already roiling. And I’m recalling Daily Post editorials about the affordable housing crisis.
There’s more. Some encouraging news, some not all that uplifting, and some that just makes you wonder.
On the COVID front, things are looking better, with more vaccines, and all. We’re maybe getting closer to herd immunity. Or maybe not.
There’s ambiguity, like in TV advertising, with the song, ‘New York, New York’ playing, letting us know the Big Apple is back in business. But other places were ‘back’ – India, for example – and then COVID returned. We’re keeping our face masks handy, here at home, just in case.
There’s been news about high-profile folks, with names that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently. Bill and Matt… Gates and Gaetz.
Isn’t that something? That the ‘ae’ is pronounced ‘a,’ making Gaetz sound the same as Gates.
Bill Gates is in the news for “becoming the largest private farmland owner in the US,” according to the news website Vox, and he “and other wealthy buyers of farmland…have been criticized for contributing to the concentration of land ownership.”
On top of that, other media are noting that potatoes grown on some farmland owned by Mr. Gates, apparently, become French fries at a popular chain of restaurants.
The other Gaetz — Matt, the politician — is caught up in alleged sex trafficking, and is making headlines with his views on armed rebellion, and such.
And then, up pops Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, in a Raw Story article. She’s been tweeting that “China is looking an awful lot like 1930s Germany.” And that “the policy of appeasement didn’t work then. It won’t work now. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it definitely rhymes.”
But then Fox News — of all media — seems to throw cold water on Rep. Boebert’s musings, reporting about President Biden urging “G-7 leaders to stand up to China,” during the recent G-7 meetings in southwestern England.
Who knows? Maybe Rep. Boebert’s views on rhyming and history — her iambic pentameter? — was somewhere off in left field?
Or, considering her politics, should we be saying “right field” instead?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.