And we officially have ourselves a trend! At least in the Times, which, as Seth Mnookin points out, is following up its Pulitzer-baiting "Class Matters" series with an incisive series of reports on "the plight of those who only break the top one percent of American wage earners." Today's entry in the saga is the Louis Uchitelle weeper, "Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind." A brief taste after the jump: It's a bit on how the superrich manage to keep it real.

Behavior is gradually changing in the Glassman household, too. Not that the doctor and his wife, Denise, 41, seem to crave change. Nothing in his off-the-rack suits, or the cafes and nondescript restaurants that he prefers for interviews, or the family's comparatively modest four-bedroom home in suburban Short Hills, N.J., or their two cars (an Acura S.U.V. and a Honda Accord) suggests that wealth has altered the way the family lives. But it is opening up "choices," as Mrs. Glassman put it. They enjoy annual ski vacations in Utah now. The Glassmans are shopping for a larger house — not as large as the family could afford, Mrs. Glassman said, but large enough to accommodate a wood-paneled study where her husband could put all his books and his diplomas and "feel that it is his own." Right now, a glassed-in porch, without book shelves, serves as a workplace for both of them.

Oh, bookshelveless multimillionaires, we feel your pain! Thank God we have no diplomas, or we'd be worried about where to put them too.


Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind [NYT]
This year's multi-part Times series: the difficulties of only being able to afford a single Ferrari [Seth Mnookin]

Earlier: 'Times' Fomenting Class War Between Least Neediest