Behold My Allusions, Ye Literate, And Dispair

Tucked into a story entitled Bill Gates says he will never downsize from his mega-mansion with 24 bathrooms — despite being a single empty-nester, we get this declaration:

Xanadu 2.0 — which he named as an ode to the 1941 film “Citizen Kane” — is the epitome of billionaire luxury, featuring six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, an indoor trampoline room, a private library and a swimming pool equipped with an underwater music system.

An ode, gentle reader. An ode. Xanadu is from Citizen Kane. Ye gods.

I’ve done an Internet search to see if Gates himself called it Xanadu 2.0 or if others did, but it’s unclear. Maybe it’s deep in the book The Road Ahead which I have not read, I don’t think, and I don’t think I have a copy of in the Nogglestead library which is odd. It was like Wayne characterized Frampton Comes Alive–it was so ubiquitous in the 1990s and in used book stores and sales for a decade thereafter that it seemed like everyone had a copy that they did not read.

I found one active link that to a story that says the house was called Xanadu in a subheadline (which seems to be the source of the assertion in the Wikipedia entry on Gates’s house. I guess nobody thought of calling it La Cuesta Encantada 2.0. But that would have required not only reading more than a Wikipedia entry but also maybe knowing what Citizen Kane was about. So cinematic history or history of the profession of journalism. Either would have worked.

I’m just here to slag on journalists, whom I suspect do not read almost 100 books, including classics, every year. Because they’re busy tracking down stories by reading the Internet instead.

Oh, and if you’re looking for my comment on Gates owning a very large house (well, several) with no intention of downsizing: So what? I don’t think I would, either, especially since it has a sweet library.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

Leave a Reply