Who blinked?

Published 7:20 pm Thursday, December 22, 2011

They say their small hearts grew three sizes that day: House Republicans and Speaker John Boehner, at the urging of their own party, agreed Thursday to allow a two-month extension of Americans’ payroll tax cut while a longer deal is negotiated early next year.

All it took was Senate Republicans, Democrats and President Obama joining hands in a circle around the Washington Monument and singing: “Fah who for-aze; Dah who dor-aze; Welcome tax cut; Come this way!”

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Oceanview property: An 11,000-square-foot mansion in La Jolla, Calif., built in 2008 but never occupied, finally sold for $14.1 million, a fraction of the original asking price of $45 million and the construction cost of $34 million.

The house was so far underwater, the next door neighbor was a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea.

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Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1788, Maryland passed an act to cede property to be used as the seat of the U.S. government, two-thirds of which eventually became the District of Columbia.

Citing the current state of the federal government, Maryland has condemned the property and wants it back.

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