One Rolex = 1,000 Meals Ready to Eat

Leave it to the Bucks County Courier Times editors, grinches that they are, to point this out (though I reluctantly admit that they have a point).

Thumbs Down to Live 8 organizers who plan to shower performers with expensive gifts – all while bringing attention to poverty in Africa.

Performers aren’t getting paid for their performances but organizers plan to thank them by offering Hugo Boss gift bags loaded with $3,000 in high-fashion goodies. Artists can also personalize their bags by adding $2,000 Gibson guitars and a $4,000 Bertolucci watch.

What? Hello? We realize that these sorts of gifts are often made available to celebrities at awards shows and other star-studded events, but are expensive gifts in the name of poverty really appropriate? Why not forego the gifts and just write a check for the same value (even half the value!) to an African aid organization?

We can only hope that artists, struck with a feeling somewhere between irony and guilt, will chose to shun these gifts. But we’re not holding our breath.

By the way, it looks like no "Live 8" TV for me, since I'm having a full day with the young one:-( (that's OK).