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Saturday, March 22, 2008

A Fool and His Money . . .

my lovely bride and i -- really just my lovely bride -- have been known to sell an item on ebay from time to time. it is a good way to get rid of things that begin to clutter our home. it also usually pays better than a garage sale, especially since you usually cannot find your way around our garage. there was an news item on foxnews.com today that reminds me of some well known cliches:

  • one man's trash is another man's treasure.
  • a fool and his money are soon parted.
  • there is a sucker born every minute.
  • you can buy and sell anything on ebay. (i realize this one is perhaps a little less well known, but it seems to be true none the less.)

friday night, monty kerr of austin, texas, became -- for the low, low price of $1350 -- the proud owner of a corn flake. that's right, a corn flake. what makes this worth such a sum? why, it is shaped like illinois. of course you have to get out a map, because no one is exactly sure what illinois is shaped like. the wizard from austin did not actually buy the corn flake. apparently, it is against ebay policy to sell food, so mr. kerr bought a coupon redeemable for a corn flake shaped like illinois. i sure hope they honor that coupon. one per customer per visit, or something like that. mr. kerr owns a trivia website and he plans to add the cereal to the traveling museum he is assembling. it is to be a collection of pop culture and americana items. is this what even pop culture is reduced to? was no more hair available from brittany spears' shaved head? thankfully, the odds are good that there will be only one illinois-shaped corn flake -- and you missed it. don't loose heart, my friends, there are t-shirts, magnets, and the official collector's pamphlet; and any of it can be yours if you are almost as big an idiot as the guy who bought the real thing.

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