I should have thought of it before. In a desperate attempt to find some interesting news items that weren’t dismal, I decided to check CNN’s “Style” news section, and found that people do occasionally do things besides kill each other. And some of those things — in my opinion, at least — are rather impractical, to put it mildly. For example, bidding enormous amounts of money for the strangest things.

The first item that caught my eye was C-3PO’s head. Yes, that C-3PO: the wise and witty, shrewd and shiny ‘droid we all loved from the original Star Wars movie. In fact, we loved him so much, the current owner is counting on earning a cool $1.2 million . . . just for his head. His hands and feet are to be auctioned separately. I don’t know why he was dismembered, or what has happened to the rest of his body; but for display purposes, I guess the head will be easier to place on the mantel than the whole person . . . uh, ‘droid would have been. I’m not sure I’d pay that much for anyone’s head, even if I had the money. But, whatever makes you happy . . . Personally, I wonder what good C-3PO is without his little buddy R2-D2. Right?

In the Star Wars bargain basement section, we also have a long-lost model of the X-wing fighter used in the original 1977 movie, with a starting price of “only” $400,000. The model belonged to a Hollywood miniature-maker, and was only discovered after his death when his family were sifting through his collection. It’s pretty cool if you’re into models of flying things . . . and have $400,000 lying around in a dresser drawer. Beam me up, Scotty. (Oops, sorry — that was Star Trek.)

NOTE: Since writing this, the X-wing fighter has been auctioned off, at a slightly higher price than the originally anticipated $400,000. The winning bid was an incredible $3,100,000! Holy crap! I wonder what the insurance premium will be . . .

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And as we leave the future and head way, wa-a-a-y back to the past, we have “an unusually well-preserved dinosaur skeleton, a Camptosaurus known as Barry,” who will “go under the hammer” in Paris next month. I assume that’s just an auction term and they don’t mean it literally. Barry dates from the late Jurassic period (some 150 million years ago), and was first discovered in Wyoming in the 1990s. He was named after Barry James, the paleontologist who restored him to his present, apparently beautiful, condition. For this fine fellow, you will need up to $1.28 million — and a good-sized spare room, as he is 6.9 feet tall and 16.4 feet long. But what a conversation starter when your next dinner party begins to lag! Just keep the dog away if he enjoys gnawing on a good bone.

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In the same Style section, but on an entirely different subject, there were some fashion items that were rather eye-catching.

At the recent Venice Film Festival, an actress named Emma Corrin (never heard of her, but I don’t see a lot of movies these days) arrived “stylishly pantless.” Apparently, it’s a trend. Never heard of that, either, and honestly wish I hadn’t. But judge for yourselves . . . I don’t know about you, but I always thought it was called “underwear” because it went under something, like clothes. I guess I’m a little old-fashioned . . . Or just old.

And here’s one final item that belongs in both the fashion and price categories: probably the only ugly thing I ever saw Princess Diana wear. It’s been dubbed the “black sheep” sweater, for obvious reasons, and is going to be auctioned by Sotheby’s with an expected haul of $50,000 to $80,000. For a sweater that’s too expensive to wear, but would . . . what? Be framed and hung on a wall? I thought Princess Di was a pretty nifty lady, but that’s a lot of $$, even for something of hers. Well, maybe it’s just that I’ve never been ridiculously wealthy. I did pay $500 for a jacket once, years ago, and never got over the guilt. Anyway, here’s a look at what you can get for only 100 to 160 times the price of that jacket.

Well, I’ve done it — written an entire piece without a single bit of bad news — except, perhaps, for the ultimate price of that X-wing miniature. And the pantless thing. I’m sorry, but that’s really bad.

Until next time . . .

Brendochka
10/18/23