Today we feature three products that fit in our preposterous products category; products that suggest the purchaser may have too much money.

1. The USB-powered greenhouse. If you aren't burning up enough energy already, this bit of greenery will help suck more out of your USB port. The $14.99 kit from Geeks.com includes marigold seeds, soil, a container with USB hookup and computer software to guide your farming effort. (Note: currently out of stock. One wonders what other plant materials might be substituted for marigolds...)

2. The battery-powered self-stirring mug. From Gevalia, this insulated mug will stir your drink at the push of a button, perfect for those who, once their latte has separated, are clueless about how to reintegrate the ingredients. $18.95, batteries included.

3. The USB vacuum. This mini-Hoover with 45" cord will accomplish everything that turning your keyboard over and shaking it will, but employs the magic of electricity to save the user from the dangers of overworking the hands and wrists. From Whatever Works for only $19.99, the USB vacuum is the perfect solution for a problem that does not exist.

Fellow Walletpop blogger Julie Tilsner recently shared that the construction of mega mansions has not been slowed with the economic downturn we have been experiencing. It seems that apparently those with loads of disposable income continue to have the means to purchase extravagant even preposterous products like the Chapter One, a $400,000 wristwatch! Other than the fancy display, the watch is rather bare bones featuring only the moon phase and the current day. The high cost apparently comes from the low number being made and the collaboration of three top watch designers.

If my bankroll permitted me to drop this much money on a watch, you could count on it having an Internet connection, remote control of my car and a personal concierge. I'm not in the position to advise the fabulously wealthy about how to spend their money, but honestly wouldn't you rather send some kid to college than wear the cost of med school on your wrist?

I can see a few mortgage companies picking these up for their executives who are jumping ship with golden parachutes. Maybe they can pay an extra $5,000 to have an extra One engraved so they can give Chapter 11 watches to celebrate the current state of the company!

Read about other preposterous products:

The Sen. Craig bobblefoot giveaway

Book helps parents explain to kids about Mom's boob job

Leave it to baseball promoters, nurtured at the altar of huckster Bill Veeck, to find a way to make money off of Senator Larry Craig's bathroom stall disgrace. Recently the minor-league St. Paul Saints gave away 2,500 Bobblefoot toys to those attending its game. The toy consisted of a gray bathroom stall with feet protruded beneath. Shake the toy, and one foot begins to tap out an invitation for an impromptu hook-up.

On the back of the toy is written, "For a good time, call" followed by the team's ticket office number. A number of these are available at the moment on Ebay.

Bobblehead doll giveaways are a dime a dozen in baseball stadiums. Clubs like the Cleveland Indians long ago ran out of players to portray in plastic, and stooped to offering likenesses of announcers, fans, and mascots, but this is without doubt the most tasteless (and amusing) giveaway, evar. What next? An Eliot Spitzer bobble****?

The legend goes that way back when, in 1899, the head of the U.S. Patent Office, Charles H. Duell, said: "Everything that can be invented, has been invented."

Duell never did say such a thing -- he was far more far-thinking than that quote would ever suggest -- as I learned when I researched him years ago for an Entrepreneur article -- but the saying is well known, and it's understandable why people believe that someone must have said it. There are days when it seems like everything that could possibly be invented, already has.

And then you run into a product like the Temperature Controlled Faucet Light. And I'll say right now that just because we're labeling it as a preposterous product, doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it. I do see the value. It's just that I never would have thought in a million years to have come up with a product like this, and yet, once you hear about it, you do kind of wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?"

The Faucet Light is a device that you put over your faucet, and with its temperature gauge, it will tell you -- with the help of a color light -- if your water is cold or hot. And so the temperature-controlled faucet light thus shines a stream of light that changes as the water temperature changes.

Life used to be so simple. If you drank a lot and found the bottle talking back to you, you know you've had enough, and that it's time to stop. Conversely, if you were a bartender, and you saw one of your patrons having a conversation with the bottle, you knew it was time to call a cab and send the lush home.

That may change. Or at least in Russia, bickering with one's bottle of booze will no longer be considered odd.

As BBC News recently reported, in Russia, where drinking vodka is a national pastime, they've come up with the world's first ever talking vodka bottle top.

Every time you remove the cap from the bottle (" a vodka genie bottle top"), a voice starts talking, offering a series of popular Russian toasts. The voice also encourages people to drink up.

And then proving that Russian scientists and vodka marketers have a sense of humor, every successive time you open the bottle, the vodka genie's speech becomes more and more slurred.

And I used to think the Hallmark talking cards were clever.



Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).