Why can I extend my desktop but not my menu bar?

"Strictly coincidence, but TUAW reader MacaholiQ8 wrote in yesterday asking if we knew of any application that would enable him to expand/extend his menubar. Seems his 12" Powerbook just doesn't offer enough screen real estate to accommodate all his precious menulings (or menu extras, if you're a stickler).

Well I know how you feel, MacaholiQ8, because I have been asking this same question of pretty much anyone who'd listen for a while now. In fact, it was my very own entry into the My Dream App contest - which obviously didn't make the cut. I'm baffled as to why. I think my dream app is more practical and worthy than that virtual plant (no offense, Dan - good luck! seriously!).

It just doesn't make sense to me. We can add things to the menu bar, remove things from the menu bar, rearrange things in the menu bar, even hide the menu bar altogether. But no one has figured out how to extend the menu bar - or if they have they are keeping the secret close to their vest.

I have 48-inches (24x2) of glorious screen real estate to fill on my desk and I can't find a way to get my menu bar to span across both displays. Similarly, when I'm on my 12" Powerbook I end up not being able to use half my menu bar items since they get hidden or pushed away off the right side by Application-specific menus encroaching from the left. That's just plain wrong.

Is it just me? Does no one else (aside from MacaholiQ8) have any desire to extend or expand their menu bar by way of multi-monitor spanning or drop-down menu access for spillover, ala Safari's Bookmarks Bar? Is there already a way to do this that I have just been too blind to see or will I have to offer a hefty bounty to some hotshot developer to hook me up?" [link]

This article was written yesterday by Laurie A. Duncan in refer to my question about expanding the menu bar on OS X. So far it's unfortunate to know that no one commented on that article has any references or any idea on how to do that.

- Thanks to Laurie for discussing this subject on TUAW.