I always get lots of reader response, especially love letters, when I write about sports figures, so I'm diving in.

Subject: Mike Shanahan's new 35,000-square-foot home in Cherry Hills Village.

Shanahan may call it a home, but at 35,000 square feet, this is not a home. This is a convention center. An international airport terminal. A garage for a performing-arts center.

The palatial ranch-style pad, expected to be completed early this year, occupies 3.5 acres and includes a basement-level bowling alley and lounge, a racquetball court and four bedrooms.

According to a March story in The Denver Post, the main level includes two studies, a gallery, a music and living room, a gathering room, a dining room, a conservatory, a kids arcade and playroom, and two bedrooms, including a master suite with his and hers closets. There are six fireplaces; a 3,600-square- foot, six-car garage; a 2,150- square-foot guest house; a swimming pool; a wine "residence" and two bridges.

It must be said. Shanahan's one-man resort is an obnoxious use of resources and a monument to excess and ego.

But apparently, it's a lifestyle to which the ex-coach of the Broncos has become accustomed.

The Rocky Mountain News' John Rebchook reports that before Shanahan started construction on the place, he sold a nearby home in 2007 for $16 million, a record for the metro area.

"I think they wanted a home similar to what they had, but with a little more space," Steve Sall, principal of the architect for the new home, told Rebchook. "My understanding is that they host a lot of fundraisers for charities, and they wanted more space for that."

Well, good. Maybe Shanahan will step up and do the right thing. Like tough it out in the 2,100-square-foot guest house for a few years and turn the rest of this Versailles of Cherry Hills Village into something really useful, like a career center for himself and Colorado's legions of unemployed.

Speaking of excess, I recently visited a hotel in Arizona where a martini in the main lounge will set you back $14.

The Mondrian, smack in the middle of downtown Scottsdale, is one in a family of New Agey hotels that's so hip you feel like you're on another planet. And I guess that's the point. The cathedral-like all-white lobby has a heavenly, celestial motif, furnished with sensuous abstract sculptures, all- white chairs and curving sofas, and lots of billowy pink and white drapes.

According to the hotel's Web site, architect Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz drew his inspiration from the Garden of Eden to create "a unique, sybaritic retreat offering rest, rejuvenation, fun and entertainment in a vibrantly pleasure-driven environment."

In the Mondrian's patio bar, furnishings include a king-size bed and several crib-like booths, each outfitted with pillows as well as curtains, so patrons can shut out the world and enjoy a little privacy with their expensive drinks.

Not exactly my idea of a romantic setting, but what do I know? I'm so old-fashioned I still read newspapers.

The patio was empty when I visited midday, and for that I was grateful.

mwinte@aol.com