The Feb. 10 issue of Newsweek has, on that Tip Sheet page regularly devoted to the latest in conspicuous consumption, a useful buyer’s guide to $5,000-and-up TV sets – HD, plasma, LCD and such. A sidebar describes the upscale urban trend of buying firewood online – for $53, you can get three to five 16-inch birch logs. Call it conspicuous combustion.

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In other news about burning money, the University of Maine System trustees recently spent $8,800 on a two-day planning retreat at a Cape Elizabeth resort so exclusive even the reality of the state’s $1.1 billion budget crisis couldn’t get in. The 17 attendees spent $1,677 for guest rooms and $3,295 for meals, including $671 for snacks. Luckily, the guest rooms did not have fireplaces.

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The biggest single expense of the UMS retreat was $3,678 for a facilitator – that’s $1,839 a day to hire an enthusiastic guy to stand up front with a big note pad and felt markers. With Maine in desperate need of new industries with good-paying jobs, let’s hope one outcome of this planning session was a decision by the trustees to initiate a degree program in facilitating.

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Paying too much for something you really want is a pretty ordinary occurrence. What’s really special is when you pay too much for something you don’t want at all, like the several southern Maine towns that have contributed several thousand dollars each to the group CasinosNo! to oppose the legalization of casino gambling in Maine.

Last week, a superior court justice ruled that CasinosNo! wrongly used the courts to interfere with a referendum effort by casino backers. This ruling, by law, allows the backers to recoup its legal fees, more than $10,000, from CasinosNo! In the future, southern Maine towns interested in this issue may want to eliminate the middleman and send their checks directly to Casinos!

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For the wise expenditure of taxpayer money, it’s hard to beat Brunswick, where $250 in public funds has been spent buying 500 commemorative coins that police will hand out to citizens they spot committing “extraordinary acts of kindness.” This is one of those programs that has something for everyone – Good Samaritans get recognized with 50 cents worth of metal; Bad Samaritans gain as well, since the officers are under orders to keep a vigilant eye peeled for good deeds and must fill out time-consuming paperwork with each citation.