Etc...

... and it had a vinyl cover

"'This can't be,' we thought. We didn't think it was possible," an astonished Arild Nicolaysen told broadcast journalists earlier this week in Norway. "We" ... being Nicolaysen and his family, who decided last weekend to go for a drive into the mountains and check on their summer cabin - only to experience a rude surprise: a 16-foot-diameter hole where their in-ground swimming pool had been. Thieves, who'd had since early November to extract it, also helped themselves to separate steel and plastic liners, the filtration system, and all the pipes and hoses. No word yet on any clues or on prospects for the Nicolaysens getting it back.

At a JFK property auction, even low bids are UP there

Compared to Sotheby's first auction of John F. Kennedy Jr. family property in 1996, which brought in $34.5 million, last week's follow-up, three-day sale was a small affair. About 700 pieces of furniture, housewares, and art consigned by Caroline Kennedy from five different homes were sold for $5.5 million. But many pieces went for far more than presale estimates. The prices included the seller's fee. A portion of the proceeds will go to the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. A sampling of the items and the winning bids:

Portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy and children $216,000
One of President Kennedy's many rocking chairs 96,000
"101 Dalmations" movie cell, autographed by Walt Disney 61,200
Louis Vuitton hat box 54,000
Portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy and children in treehouse 27,000
Chippendale dining table 14,400
Monogrammed horse blankets 9,000
Monogrammed napkins 7,000
Pine sailor's trunk 4,500
- Associated Press/ Sotheby's