Yes. Civilization is now at an end. Why do you ask?

If there weren’t two crisp twenties under the bun, I couldn’t imagine what would make this worth it. But if you live long enough in a city where a first-grader’s birthday party can cost $3,000, you must remain sanguine in the face of absurdity.

I had started on a Saturday night with a $41 burger. By Sunday night, two miles on the treadmill later, I was at another restaurant uptown, face to face with a $50, 4-inch-tall tower of beef and bun, 2 inches higher than my black French pumps. This was not the launch of my Atkins diet. Rather, I had resigned myself to covering a competition between restaurateurs over who could reinvent the great American hamburger and charge the most for it.

Even though the bubble has burst and the country is facing an international crisis, New York City is fully engaged in a war over turning a low-rent food into something ineluctable.

This all heated up shortly after New Year’s.

For the first time, one of the oldest steakhouses in New York added a hamburger to its menu. Located in the meatpacking district since 1868, the Old Homestead offered 20 ounces of beer-fed Kobe beef on a bun for $41.

A few days later at DB Bistro Moderne, a top-rated French chef with a yen for publicity raised the stakes. Daniel Boulud began shaving $350-per-pound black truffles onto his regular DB Burger, raising the price from $29 to $50. This offering was good only for the four short months of the truffle season.

There’s a wonderful bit later on in the article about how

“Everyone has $41,” Sherry said. “Or everyone can raise $41.” After all, he bragged, he sold 200 burgers the first day, 140 of them takeout orders from the nearby financial district. So much for the bear market.

Man. Now that’s disposable income.

I love TiVo for my TV, but I’ve said over and over again that I really want RadiVo, so I can tape “All Things Considered” or “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”

Evidently, there now is such a product. (Scroll down a bit to find that bit.)

Whoo hoo!

From Thomas Holcomb’s Weblog (which I found by hitting the Random button): Reading at 8 months, and that was just the beginning.

Alia, who is 13, and will earn her undergraduate degree from the State University at Stony Brook this spring, has been stunning people for a long time, beginning with her parents, who thought it odd when she started reading words at 8 months old.

Prof. Harold Metcalf had her in physics her freshman year. “I was skeptical,” he says. “Such a little girl. Then the second or third class, she asked a question. I realized, this girl understands. I’ve occasionally seen this at 15 or 16, but not 10.”

And not just math and physics. She is an accomplished clarinetist. Ricardo Morales, principal clarinet for the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, is her teacher. He recalls two years ago, preparing her to play the Mozart Concerto for Clarinet.

“Such a monumental piece,” he says. “It requires a beautiful sound, beautiful phrasing, a solid technical foundation. You must sing through the instrument. She does! It was child’s play for her.” Literally.

You know, when I read stuff like that I’m a mix of emotions. Like, Gee, I was a smart kid but never smart like that, or, Gosh, wouldn’t it be cool to have a kid who was that brilliant and multi-talented? It’s hard—for me, at any rate—not to do the comparative thing. I have to remind myself that everybody does their own thing at their own pace.

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More charter schools coming to LA:

In a few years, the burgeoning charter school movement could siphon off more than 10 percent of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s student body, freeing educators from the bureaucracy to try new ways to improve education.

Already, more than 50 charter schools have sprung up in the Los Angeles area to serve 27,800 children in predominantly poor neighborhoods.

This year alone, the district expects to process 15 to 20 charter school applications. El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills and Pacoima Elementary School both plan to convert into charters starting this fall.

Also, the Alliance for Student Achievement — a nonprofit group led by Los Angeles’ civic elite — is working to launch a network of charter schools that will serve 50,000 students within five years. Education Week has dubbed the Alliance’s proposal the “Shadow L.A. District.”

I don’t quite understand what charter schools are, but the more choice we have around here for schools, the better.

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According to Fortune over at bread, coffee, chocolate, and yoga, chocolate is an excellent addition to any diet!

As an added bonus, coffee may reduce the risk of colon cancer in women.

Does this mean I can write off my visits to Starbucks as “health care”?

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Some days it’s hard to decide whether the Bush administration is cynical and stupid or simply outright evil.

(Boxgate via Atrios. Richard Hines info via Josh Marshall.)