A tiny, East River island that disappears at high tide went up for sale two weeks ago and sold on Sunday to a man who swims to it regularly and says he won't change anything but the name. That name, Rat Island, really does need to go. But perhaps it was the sewer-rodent connotations that pushed the island's price down from the $300,000 for which it was offered in 2009 to $160,000, for which Bronx resident Alex Schibli offered as the winning auction bid on Sunday. Schibli lives in a neighborhood called City Island, where he can see Rat Island from his backyard, so he said he always felt like it was his anyway. He said the name was misleading--any rats that made it out there would be washed away at high tide anyway.

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Adam Martin