Buying the New Yorker - Page 78

To raise interest in Monk, a detective with OCD, you can go take a quiz to see if you have OCD as well. I took the test, and found... Hang on. This is getting a little familiar.

Internet quiz - free

French Country Waterways, Ltd. is a classy classy outfit. The ad is minimalist to the point of saying almost nothing. The ad text in its entirety reads "Irresistible... Luxury Barge Cruises" followed by an address (a PO box in Duxbury, MA) and two phone numbers (a local and a toll-free). This is set off by a little line-drawing of a pair of canoodling swans. So I expected that these folks were soooo old-school that they didn't even have a website. Wrong. It's a very nice website packed with pictures and floorplans and maps and menus.

Barge trip through the canals of France - $4,000.00 (median price for one person, based on double occupancy)

TheaterMania is a clearinghouse for theater tickets, as well as reviews, news and goofy quizzes (the one currently on the page asks to choose a hypothetical Friends star/stage role as your favorite - when the page loaded the first thing I saw was the phrase "Matt LeBlanc in Hamlet." They shouldn't tempt fate like that.)

One ticket to the Broadway production of Chicago - $59.75

Scott Jordan Furniture's website includes a page of "thoughts." Here's one:

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

You can do this in your comfy new sleigh bed.

Queen size high foot sleigh bed - $3,115.00

Oh no! We broke Grandma's favorite Hummel figurine! That's what happens when you play football in the house. Better go to Replacements, Ltd. for another one.

Hummel figurine, "Accordion Boy" - $229.95

Running total - $60,151.28