Wednesday, August 12 2009

A Fool and His Millions

I guess the name 'Le Goofball' was taken

I'll confess: I don't understand people at all. Even being one doesn't seem to help. From the 'more money, no brains' file, luxury purveyor Leon Verres produces $2.75 million/bottle sparkling wine (warning: site has awful sounds and vaguely pornographic images such as the one above, and above all is tacky and crappy and will sap your will to live). Targeted at the sort of billionaires who apparently make money without common sense, it features a diamond encrusted 9-litre bottle inside a sable muff.

While I can't find anything out about Leon Verres, I'm having a very hard time accepting any of it at face value. Even accounting for the concepts of Veblen economics (one of which is that the stupid are afraid to buy things that seem too inexpensive, and are reassured by being overcharged) the idea of buying a bottle of wine with no provenance (they don't say what's inside: it could be Mountain Dew™ for all they reveal) at a price hundreds of thousands of times than the median cost of real Champagne is goofy as all get-out.

You can check out their video if you like, but it's about as demeaning and exploitive as a rap-music video, with (against all odds) even worse music. If it's not a joke, then the world is weirder than I thought.

Say, I just got a great idea for a new SuperLimited Wine Kit: Only four million dollars a kit, and you get a whole 30 bottles! Every one includes a handful of crushed sapphires in the bag (never mind tha it looks like ground glass) and comes with a certificate of authenticality from the Wine Kit Institute of . . . let's say Europe. Yeah, Europe! And a genuine hand-knitted Alpaca Kit cover thrown in with purchases of three or more!

On second thought I don't think anyone would bite on it even for a practical joke.

Posted by Tim AT 8:20PM

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