BIRDCAGES FOR BIRDBRAINS

When it comes to home decor, I'm a sucker for all things unusual or pretty. My taste runs from the conservative to the ultra modern, and everything in between. Anyone who has ever visited my various digs can testify that to me a house is nothing but a stage in which to live my life, and the more it looks like a movie set, well, the better. 

That said, the other day I ran across an item that even I had to look at twice and wonder what in the world the designer was thinking when it was created.

Tah-dah, roll them drums, behold the Birdcage Chandelier. 

Now a brief survey of my home will turn up quite a few bird motifs -- I adore birds -- but in the wild, viewed in their natural habitat, preferably in flight. The notion of keeping birds inside the house in a cage, no matter how pretty, horrifies me.

Imagine my confusion when I happened on these pretties on a website -- a chandelier that lives within a birdcage. The oxymoronic nature of the concept mystifies me - it's not as if the chandelier was going to fly away from the owner anytime soon. 

Do the buyers of these contraptions feel that the crystal is so precious that prying fingers must be kept away at all costs? Or are they indulging in some peculiar bondage fetish that some of us just don't understand? 

While I'm happy that these folks are not keeping a little animal trapped in such a gilded palace, the fact that they have to keep an inanimate object held captive says something very odd about them indeed. 

Somebody should call the chandelier police and press charges.

Amen, and pass the mustard.