Vanity of vanities. All is vanities.

Who loves a story of a greedy villain getting his comeuppance? I do! I do! Plenty of that in the news today.

The business section of the New York Times has wonderful articles about the uber-rich. A real estate agent from Greenwich blogs about their super big houses and what happens to the homes when the owners inevitably end up in prison.

Mr. Fountain likes to point to the prominent Greenwich characters in the public spotlight as part of the problem. Topping Mr. Fountain’s list of homeowners are Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund executive now serving an 11-year prison sentence on charges of insider trading, and Frederic A. Bourke Jr., co-founder of Dooney & Bourke, the high-end handbag accessories store, who has just been imprisoned for bribery and whose house is on the market for $13 million.

He also likes to skewer Walter Noel, a founder of Fairfield Greenwich, the investment firm that raised more than $8 billion for Mr. Madoff and subsequently became the target of investigations. Mr. Noel’s 175 Round Hill address is just across the road from Mr. Bourke’s home. The estate of Steven A. Cohen, whose hedge fund pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in November, is six miles east of Round Hill Road.

On the same page, another article talks about the boost in sales of big homes. (Not sure how both articles can be true at the same time.) The latest “must-haves” in homes for the rich include a “dirty” kitchen, a mud-room with laundry facilities, and master bathrooms that are larger than my first apartment.

The Governor of Virginia and his wife.

Beyond huge bathrooms and mega mudrooms, what’s hip in homes for the rich these days? New homes that look like they’re old. I love mocking McMansions.