Much has been made, in the relevant media, of the price recently paid for a bulb of the snowdrop 'E.A. Bowles'. The anonymous bidder paid £357 for a single bulb, news that made the front page of the Daily Telegraph. I can't remember the last time I saw a front page Telegraph headline reading 'Gucci handbag sold for £357 at auction' or 'frock by French fashionista fetches £357'. I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be news. Yet, when someone pays £357 for a plant that, in fifty years' time, when the handbags and frocks being bought today will be moth-eaten and forgotten, will still be giving pleasure to its owner, journos feel obliged to repeat with mind-numbing tediousness, the idea that the current enthusiasm in the UK for snowdrops is just like the tulip bubble of the Dutch 'Golden Age'. Why can't these well-paid, so-called professionals think before they hit the 'send to editor' button?
Things you can buy for £357.
Two hours and ten minutes with a top-flight psychiatrist (
http://www.harleystreetguide.co.uk/doctors/psychiatrists/pardeep-grewal/)
A flight half way to Australia (http://book.qantas.com.au/pl/QFOnline/wds/OverrideServlet)
One handbag.(http://www.handbagleague.com/Hermes-Bags/Hermes-birkin/30Cm-Birkin-Pink-Ostrich-With-Gold-Hardware)
45 minutes with a good divorce lawyer (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/jul/15/familyandrelationships)
The most interesting comment on this affair, in my opinion, was made by a journalist on John Grimshaw's blog (see here). After admitting gracefully to repeating innuendo, she said that 'my lot' (i.e. her editor) had enquired '£357? Is that a lot?' In other words, the metropolitan elite, who decide what we should think, haven't the slightest ability to measure value, once the object under consideration falls outside the miniscule cross-section of the interest spectrum they cater to.
liked the one on the premiership footballer. You could have bought 0.006 grams of Fernando Torres for the same amount. Interesting but by the way he has started at Chelsea I think your snowdrop might have been a better investment for them as well.
ReplyDeleteI'll take the eight grams of cocaine, thanks very much. I don't know if you could snort Fernando Torres but I expect he'd stick in the straw unless you freeze dried him or something.
ReplyDeleteI was not planning to snort Fernando Torres - I can think of few things worse than nasal-canabalism of footballers. I was just delighted how totally useless 6 thousands of gram of a footballer would be.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both, brother. My point exactly. A snowdrop might seem expensive, until you start to think about what else you could buy for the same price and the pleasure you'd get from that purchase.
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