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July 2008
Gone Fishing
I’m away from the office this week, and will be back next Monday. In the meantime, PBUpd8ers, keep your eyes and ears open. I’ll want to hear about everything I’ve missed when I return. (This means you, Olivia Eloise! And you too, John Penn.)
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Phrase O’ The Day
FPL saying this caused Wednesday’s protracted Midtown power failure.
Which reminded me of a guideline from my days as The Palm Beach Post features editor, working for then-managing editor Randy Schultz. The proper phrase for loss of electricity was power failure, not power outage, he would tell us.
I asked Randy this morning, via email, if he remembered this.
“Yep. Because there then would have to be an ‘onage’ when power returned.”
Hilarious.
Wardrobe malfunction, vegetation interference … We’ve already got pwnage, so “onage” might be next. But probably not in the Post’s editorial pages.
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And Speaking Of Trumps
Bloomberg has an interesting story about Donald Trump Jr.’s plans to invest in India: Trump Jr. Plans $1 Billion Fund for India Property
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The Ever-Quotable Donald Trump
Daily News photo by Jeffrey Langlois
After Donald Trump closed last week on the $95 million sale of Maison de L’Amitié to Dmitry Rybolovlev, PBUpd8 reader Olivia Eloise wrote me to say:
“Isn’t it interesting that the Trumpster said the Gosman estate was the second most beautiful house on the island, next to Mar-a-Lago, when it was for sale at $125M? Now, having sold for $95M, he always considered it a teardown!”
When it comes to hyperbole, there is no greater master than Donald Trump — which of course makes him such fun to follow. Olivia’s email prompted a quick search of our archive. Some notable quotes:
Nov. 16, 2004: “My initial feeling is to utilize the existing house and create the second greatest house in America, Mar-a-Lago being the first. It’s the finest piece of land in Florida and probably in the U.S. It’s potentially so great. The existing house is a terrific structure, and I’ll bring it to a level that few people have ever seen. Then, I’ll resell the house.”
August 14, 2005: “I am spending a fortune to make it the best house in the country, besides Mar-a-Lago. There will be nothing like it.”
March 08, 2008: “I would live there myself, but how do you top Mar-a-Lago?”
July 16, 2008: “I always looked at it as a teardown.”
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Turtle Tales: Yesterday And Today
Photo by Lannis Waters
One day recently when I wasn’t blogging, I was over at the Historical Society doing research on The Shiny Sheet’s early years.
What a great day that was, losing myself in old scrapbooks and files, photos and intrigues … One item that caught my eye was a letter to the editor dated April 18, 1900. Lillian Voss — ” … one of the earliest arrivals on the lake, having been born here in 1876” — had penned a graceful letter to correct some statements in a story about this region’s early history.
The “chief food of the early settlers,” she wrote, “was sweet potato, fish, pumpkins and in their season, turtle eggs. The first person on the beach got the eggs, so it is needless to say all were early risers. The eggs were very much needed. In one family where some of the eggs were laid away on top of the safe, there was much surprise one morning to find young turtles instead of eggs.”
Today, of course, sea turtles are a protected species, and stealing their eggs can land a vandal in jail for up to five years, and cost up to $250,000 in fines. In fact, our news partners over at the Post have a story today about a disturbing increase in turtle nest vandalism and turtle egg thefts (link).
For more information on what you can do to keep our turtle population growing, visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or our wonderful resource on Juno Beach, Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
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Wilbur Ross: High End ‘Very Good’
“High end of the market seems very good. I mean, there was one week in Palm Beach, where I live these days, one week house sold for $81 million, another house sold for $91, another house sold for $100. Each was a success of record, but in the — what for Palm Beach is lower end, say $4 million or below, there are no bids.” — from a transcript of a 7/1 Bloomberg interview with Palm Beach homeowner and investor Wilbur Ross (link)
Ross didn’t mention that he and wife Hilary just paid $13.2 million — demolition permit not included — for a property adjacent to their El Vedado Road home. As Mike Kaiser reported in early June, the couple wanted a better view of the Intracoastal and will build guest quarters on the land.
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Epstein: From Caribbean ‘Xanadu’ To County Jail
Shiny Sheet reporter William Kelly was in court yesterday when Judge Deborah Pucillo sent part-time Palm Beacher Jeffrey Epstein straight to the county lock-up after his guilty plea to charges of soliciting prostitution, sometimes from under-age girls (link).
New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr.’s story today provides some additional and fascinating details about the financier’s life and attitudes, gathered during a visit to his “palm-fringed Xanadu in the Caribbean” on Little St. James Island a few months ago.
Epstein likens himself to Gulliver and offers up this admission: “I am not blameless.”
Apparently not.
The story’s here: Financier Starts Sentence in Prostitution Case.
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