Golden nose

The late Gianni Agnelli, the former boss of FIAT, had a bit of a reputation for having gone over the top in his younger days with his cocaine habit. He snorted the evil powder so much that, so the story goes, most of his nasal passages had been re-constructed in gold.

Sadly, the temption of this rather dubious and dangerous passtime of the rich nearly cost the grandson of the famous Golden nose his life, although the incident is being played down by the Agnelli family, as you might expect. You can read about this incident here.

It's odd how drugs seem to cause problems for either the poorest or richest elements of our society. Even Kate Moss seems to have found the temptation of a few too many snorts too great. For some, having too much money would appear to be as problematic as having too little.

As for me, I'll stick to my multiple and far less costly and dangerous doses of good old Italian coffee.