May 9, 2019--Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala

Rubbing elbows with Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Picasso were Demi Moore, Chris Rock, and Miley Cyrus. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute gala organized and hosted by Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour.

Lady Gaga and Titian, Katy Perry and Manet? Together at the Temple of Dendur, munching finger food and getting sloshed with champaign? 

If Titian and his artist friends had stayed home (which they should have) it would have been like an evening at the GRAMMYs or the Golden Globes (thus the champaign reference).

How much money could the Met have netted from the affair that would have (perhaps) justified selling themselves out to the highest bidder? I could even have gotten excited if Met benefactors Charles and David Koch (the rightwing Koch Brothers) had written a check to cover the yield.

Take a look at Lady Gaga sprawled on the steps of the Met who shed three layers of clothes before she got to her costume--bra, panties, panty hose, and six-inch heels.

And then check out Katy Perry who came as a big cheeseburger.

It's good to be in Maine and away from all this ridiculousness. 

July 15, 2014--eBay

eBay, which started as a place to sell and collect Pez dispensers and then became a venue to put up for bid almost anything--thus it's tagline the Nation's Flea Market--may soon need to come up with a very different way to represent itself.

At first most of the stuff listed for auction was, well, junk. But buyers were attracted to the Website as much by the "action" provided by participating in an auction as by the stuff. How many people actually needed a stuffed Minnie Mouse doll or a glass citrus-slice Christmas tree ornament or a 1954 Sears Roebuck catalog? Apparently tens of millions.

But now, in addition to these tchotchkes, you can make an offer on a 1966 Lotus Elan sports car. The required opening bid is $20,000. And, as incredible as it my seem, cars like this--though you can't take them out for a test-drive--actually get sold via eBay for very big bucks.

What do I know.

Obviously not much because soon you will be able to bid on paintings by Andy Warhol through a deal eBay recently struck with Sotheby's.

Starting this fall, eBay's 145 million subscribers will be able to bid multimillions online for Picassos as well as Pez dispensers.

(A set of 12 Disneyana Pez dispensers--Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald Duck, Goofy, and the rest of the gang can right now on eBay be yours for $20.22. My guess, you can have them by the end of the week for 20 bucks even.)

A Warhol, on the other hand, could go for $100 million. Shipping, though, is extra. New York to Dubai will cost you.