Luxury Lunacy - Craziness on a Grand Scale

Though not by any means wealthy, I had a crazy moment this morning.  I'd written three columns so that I could take off mentally for a couple of days.  And this morning I couldn't find them.  And I knew they were here.  But they weren't

We'd had guests over yesterday afternoon/evening and in the surge to tidy I stashed them ... somewhere.  I finally found them, face down on top of the dishwasher.  I'd grabbed a sheet of paper to write down the three appetizers and their relative heats and times in the oven!  So, Ladies and Gentlemen, with no further ado ...

The front page of the LA Times for 12/23/13, had this headline "Move-in-ready Homes Pop Up in Luxury Market." 

The article starts by stating the obvious - that when a celebrity sells an abode and throws in the designer furniture and personal knickknacks, the sale will quickly follow.  Elton John used to have a pair of condos in LA and he sold them replete with his personal stuff.  Including his snakeskin-covered bed frame!   Given the fact that "snake-o-phobia"(?) runs rampant with me the very thought that something like that even exists gave me a severe case of the fantods. 

Here's an example of the "Can't be bothered - I'll take it fully furnished; here's my check" type of thinking.  A $36 million house in Beverly Hills comes with a putting green with a lavish view of Los Angeles -- and a $300 putter.

We are talking detailed when all you have to bring is your own clothing.  Toothbrush?  Try these new Philips Sonicares.  Dinnerware?  Villeroy & Boch plus $1.3 million in furniture. 

Real estate gossips report that when Ellen DeGeneres and Portia di Rossi sold their 26-acre ranch in Thousand Oaks, they deliberately left behind the pots, skillets, potato peeler!  Other houses have fully-stocked pantries along with cleaning supplies, toilet paper and paper towels.

My question is:  who among us has so little interest in their surroundings as to be able to buy and live with other people's leftovers?  No aesthetic sense at all chills me.  Are the buyers just rich robots?

The article did say this type of purchase is handy for people  who want a second home and no bother or film or corporate executives transferred here for some time.

If they've got the money and this is what they want?  Soul-less living courtesy of the guy ahead of them?  Go ahead on, Philistines!