# You come into a huge fortune. What frivious thing do you buy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 12, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440 "2010-07-12T20:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/61 "2010-07-13T05:06:28Z")
Teardrop trailer for when I camp. All the various collectibles I couldn’t afford before eBay was a big business. Big-ass room for a library / toy room. I’m not counting a house as frivolous. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/62 "2010-07-13T05:33:59Z")
I’d buy about ten of those Dyson fans. Oh sure, I’d get the house and the jet and the robot dolphin butlers eventually, but a $300 fan is pretty much the definition of frivolous. And I’m a man who loves a good fan. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/63 "2010-07-13T05:45:06Z")
A [battlewagon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmaster_IMV). ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/64 "2010-07-13T06:38:05Z")
A lawn tractor. OK, I basically have no lawn. But when I was growing up it was on a farm where the damn things were just too small to be of any good and now in the city they are just too damn big (many of my neighbors cut their grass with a weed-whacker). So even if I just sit on it in the garage or use what little yard I have to make a shed for it (possibly two sheds eventually) I am buying my damn lawn tractor! ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/65 "2010-07-13T06:46:43Z")
My kid wants a hovercraft, so I guess my frivolous purchase is going to be a hovercraft. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/66 "2010-07-13T06:51:42Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > A lawn tractor. OK, I basically have no lawn. But when I was growing up it was on a farm where the damn things were just too small to be of any good and now in the city they are just too damn big (many of my neighbors cut their grass with a weed-whacker). So even if I just sit on it in the garage or use what little yard I have to make a shed for it (possibly two sheds eventually) I am buying my damn lawn tractor! Sorry. Gonna have to DQ that response from this thread. You are a man. A Riding Mower is your inalienable right. If you are at least 40 years old, you should already have one, and the lack thereof is an unfortunate oversight. You’ll have to chose something else for your frivolous purchase. **Skald** ’s Flying Monkeys will be delivering your new toy. You’re getting a John Deere, btw. Top of the line. I can do that, because **Skald** gave me the keys to his secret villain lair when he went off to deal with an alien invasion in a thread a few weeks ago. He never asked for the keys back, so I assume he expects me to [del]exercise the hookerbots[/del] do good things in his name from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/67 "2010-07-13T07:18:15Z")
A flat in Barcelona’s Via Augusta area: that’s the kind of place where ceilings are twice as high as in a modern building and 6B3b is considered modest. Stock the garage with a Porsche, a Firebird, a baby-blue Corvette and my Yaris. Get one or two housemates whose housework duties include chauffeuring me in the fancy cars (being a nerd is a requirement too). Paint the Yaris in the most glaring scheme I can think of, probably involving a dragon or two. Buy a house near Edinburgh, to spend the summer (more daylight and less heat, what’s not to like?). ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/68 "2010-07-13T07:43:34Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I also need a go kart track and about 8 shifter karts in the back yard. I’d replace those karts with Bugatti Veyrons. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/69 "2010-07-13T08:19:29Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > I’d like a Mustang, not one of those new fangled Fords. I want a classic ,a North American P-51D. And a B-17 to go with it. Give me a Spitfire! Plus a Me-262 and an Arado AR-234. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/70 "2010-07-13T09:07:19Z")
1. An Airstream trailer with a vehicle big enough to pull it. 2. A little 2 BR house in the town where I live now, to land for a few days when I’m tired of road life. 3. A good dog to take on the road with me. 4. A houseboat to cruise in when I’m tired of traveling by land. 5. The services of a private plane when I want to fly. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/71 "2010-07-13T10:07:36Z")
Apart from builing my own small castle, having a team of women to fulfill my every need… (Yes EVERY need’) I would have dome shaped ceilings that replicated the sky, (but the sky I want rather then the weather conditions outside) Plus the same tech ceilings that would show a fantasy night sky. (Huge Moon with smiling face, heavenly castles in the clouds, flying witches, dragons etc. because I’m a big kid) Also a yacht, a ski lodge in Switzerland and my own small town with pubs, a cinema, theatre, resteraunts, a night club and a hotel for my friends to stay over in. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/72 "2010-07-13T10:09:15Z")
Also a clear domed, undersea house in a tropical lagoon somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Oliveritaly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oliveritaly/32/15233_2.png) [@Oliveritaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oliveritaly)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/73 "2010-07-13T10:59:56Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > A fully reconditioned antique sock knitting machine. I thought you were kidding until I googled this … ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/74 "2010-07-13T11:22:11Z")
I’d take a couple hundred grand here [www.verralls.com](http://www.verralls.com) and have some amazing toys shipped home. Unclviny ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/75 "2010-07-13T11:34:49Z")
1. A really, really nice apartment in New York City, which would be where I live, which is I suppose frivolous considering I would also buy… 2. A big other estate where I could build a gigantic house, but more importantly a ferris wheel, rollercoaster, and other amusement park stuff - a bit like Michael Jackson’s Neverland except I don’t want any kids running around, they’d only get in the way of my own fun. Oh and a room full of the balls you find in a ballpit. 3. A singing telegram that I could send to Opal when I want to say hi. _prepares for the vuvuzela button_ ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/76 "2010-07-13T13:05:47Z")
A crazy kitchen remodel, in which I gut the existing kitchen in our house and move it over into what is now our family room, and where the fireplace is will be a brick oven. Also, a hot tub. And one of those showers with the surround jets. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/77 "2010-07-13T13:53:09Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > First editions of all 12 Heinlein juveniles, in as close to mint condition as possible. Then a set in readable condition for every day use. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I know I said everyone could define _frivolous_ for themselves. I was, of course, lying. > > That is NOT frivolous, damn it! It’s clearly an investment, plus it’s freaking Robert Anson Heinlein. Now this is an investment: [The Virginia Edition](http://www.virginiaedition.com/). $1500 super-special edition of Heinlein’s works, being published and shipped in installments. Since it has been ruled that this would not be considered frivolous, I’ll go with a mansion, complete with indoor and outdoor pools, a hot tub deck, greenhouse, and a two-story library (like the one Higgins had in My Fair Lady\*, which I’ve always lusted after. A gourmet kitchen, with a chef who will not only prepare meals but teach me how to cook them. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/78 "2010-07-13T14:11:22Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > A Jay Leno-esque garage of really kick ass cars. And a full time mechanic to maintain them. And my own insurance company so I could have cheap rates on all my cars! Did you and your college roommate support yourselves by doing one another’s laundry? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/79 "2010-07-13T14:15:45Z")
I figured the big-but-near-public-transportation single-family house with the crazy-big kitchen full o’ gadgets was a given. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440/80 "2010-07-13T14:21:10Z")
I would rebuild the World Trade Center Twin Towers exactly as they were before 9/11. A big “fuck you” to terrorists everywhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-come-into-a-huge-fortune-what-frivious-thing-do-you-buy/546440.md?page=5)