Househunters

Mansion mania: Sales of homes costing $1 million or more rose 7.8 percent in March from a year earlier, while house totaling $250,000 or less by mere mortals plunged 12 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Even though these are salad days for the wealthy, remember that such a hot market creates a lot of disappointed would-be buyers who missed out on that adorable 21,000-square-foot beach home in the shingle style, with car elevator, 12,000-bottle wine cellar and the room in the basement for the live-in nanny.

Lots of green for green: Soaring prices for limes are hitting American consumers at a most inopportune time: Cinco de Mayo.

Things have gotten so bad that when you ask for the top-shelf stuff in your margarita Monday, the bartender will assume you’re talking not about Don Julio Reposado but lime juice.

Meanwhile, on the Jersey Shore: When a dead minke whale washed ashore in Atlantic City, N.J., someone, possibly some area frat boys, tagged the 15-foot-long body with graffiti.

If the taggers are caught, The Buzz suggests an appropriate punishment would be the dumping of the putrefying whale corpse in their back yard.

— Mark Carlson and Christina Okeson, Herald staff

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