What I learned from the news this morning.

PARENTHETICAL ENOUGH-IS-ENOUGH THOUGHT: Aside from the usual unending flood of political sewage which is rapidly becoming too nauseating to follow, that is....

I read this story and learned that the latest "thing" for the uber-wealthy is to build giant fireplaces, sometimes with kitchens attached, in their backyards.

I've always wanted a huge chimney in my backyard, haven't you?

I guess if you are one of those fortunate folks who have money to burn -- so to speak -- and feel a need to one-up the neighbors, you have to do something drastic. So yeah, why not put up something everyone in the neighborhood can see, whether they want to or not.

Of course the story was already going downhill for me when it was mentioned that one of the avant-garde couples who have ordered up a big-ass smokestack for their yard spent over $13 million to build the house adjoining the new toy.

A $13 million house? For two people?

I feel left out. I can't even comprehend that.

Then there's a report (sorry, the link doesn't seem to work) that Chinese food is bad for you. So, by the way, are Mexican and Italian foods.

I wonder what the people who compile these studies eat? Raw veggies and meadow grass?

Frankly, I suspect the authors reviewed their work over a meal of Quarter-Pounders-with-cheese, fries and soft drinks. It's the Al Gore Syndrome: tell others how they must live, while living your own life by another set of rules. Or no rules.

Art Bell was right. There is at least one parallel universe out there, and probably more, governed by forces incomprehensible to most of us and peopled by strange beings.