Harry Hurt III (pictured, with pal) used to write a column in the New York Times business section called "Executive Pursuits," in which Harry Hurt went off and did something wacky and upscale and wrote about it. It always struck me as a wholly unnecessary exercise in self-absorption, which had nothing to do with business at all, except for the fact that Harry Hurt is a rich guy. Now, he's back—pioneering the use of advertising and product placement in books. Oh. Good.

"Thanks mostly to my advancing years and my inherited high arches," reveals lifestyle capitalist and Sag Harbor resident Harry Hurt III in today's Times, "I'd developed a so-called hammertoe." The "offending digit" blistered itself by scraping against his "dress shoes"! And then the weekend lifestyle drama builds: will Harry's hurts be alleviated by a cut-rate, if "light as a feather," aluminum cane ("I cringed in silent horror") or is our hero more a $279 "four-wheeled walker...with bicycle-style handbrakes" man?