Word: flea
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...entire wing to his splendiferous Jubilee Palace so that Elizabeth and her entourage of 31 could be properly housed. Meanwhile, fire engines roared through town hanging royal portraits from every lamppost. The Emperor's lions, which usually roam the palace grounds unattended, were hosed down, dusted with flea powder, and chained tight to avoid embarrassment...
...placards along the walls, and were so broke that they monopolized the sidewalks, hawking everything from motor scooters to souvenir T shirts or even their guitars. The French press, forgetting it was the Filthy Rich Americans that they had always despised, professed horror at what they dubbed "the American Flea Market...
This apotheosis of the castoff has had worldwide repercussions. Paris' famed Flea Market is no longer a romantic shambles reminiscent of The Beggar's Opera but is getting to be more and more like a shopping center. It even has a parking lot. Flea Market stalls now sell for as much as $50,000 each and are often manned by antique dealers from the fashionable faubourgs, St.-Germain and St.-Honore. Their wares are mostly remarkable for their prices. On sale there last week was a velvet dog under glass for $100, a screen commemorating the 1900 Floradora...
...Haggling. Who pays? Parisians and tourists and antique dealers from the U.S.,* who have helped bid up French prices so astronomically that Flea Market dealers are beginning to do some of their own shopping on London's Portobello Road, where the spiral is also coiling upward. The oldtime tradition of haggling has become a thing of the past. "We know the value of things," says one dealer stiffly. "We mark our prices and we don't expect to bicker...
...porcelain is artificially cracked in a cobweb pattern and the printing is a tastefully faded blue. One of the first of them turned up on Manhattan's Third Avenue last winter, selling at $125; in June there were dozens around London at $70; last week they hit the Flea Market at the same price...