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Researchers Find Clues to 'Pack-Rat' Urge
WebMD Medical News ^
| Dec. 17, 2004
| Miranda Hitti
Posted on 12/18/2004 7:05:24 AM PST by MississippiMasterpiece
click here to read article
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My problem is books...I've been collecting them for almost 20 years...I have thousands and thousands in my home...stacked in closets...boxed under beds...My name is MississippiMasterpiece and I am a bookaholic.
To: MississippiMasterpiece
And obviously brain damaged! LOL!
2
posted on
12/18/2004 7:08:22 AM PST
by
EEDUDE
(Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.)
To: MississippiMasterpiece
I can think of worse things than surrounding yourself with books. Why don't you just open a neighborhood library? That would be the answer.
3
posted on
12/18/2004 7:08:51 AM PST
by
Galtoid
To: MississippiMasterpiece
Oh, thank God! But can it be eventually cured?
4
posted on
12/18/2004 7:09:46 AM PST
by
xJones
To: MississippiMasterpiece
Since it is 'books' you collect; you are exempt from 'rat' status ;^)
Did you say thousands?
5
posted on
12/18/2004 7:11:04 AM PST
by
cricket
(I)
To: MississippiMasterpiece
Well if the workshop, garage, and shed aren't soon cleaned out, there is going to be even more brain damage around here!
6
posted on
12/18/2004 7:12:07 AM PST
by
JudyinCanada
(Five-fingered Canadian)
To: MississippiMasterpiece; B4Ranch
My name is MississippiMasterpiece and I am a bookaholic. I can't think of a better addiction!
7
posted on
12/18/2004 7:12:54 AM PST
by
risk
To: MississippiMasterpiece
I collect scientific reasearch articles...
and you have just made my problem worse!
[/sarcasm]
8
posted on
12/18/2004 7:13:34 AM PST
by
melbell
(groovy)
To: cricket
Yes...It's truly thousands...and that's after ridding myself of 1,000 or so books a few years back...Of my collection, probably 2,000 or so are first editions in "as new" condition signed by the authors. My insurance company makes me carry a special rider.
To: MississippiMasterpiece
I collect hockey cards. I had forgotten about the ones I collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s until my nephew pointed out that people were paying a lot of money for them. About 4 years ago I sold selected cards for enough to put a nice down payment on a 1973 Ferrari [okay, Fiat] Dino GTS.
If they do find a cure for packrattery, I refuse to be cured.
To: MississippiMasterpiece
"My name is MississippiMasterpiece and I am a bookaholic." Ditto. But, I collect most anything...most in my family do.
11
posted on
12/18/2004 7:33:33 AM PST
by
blam
To: MississippiMasterpiece
This is not as harmless an obsession as you'd think. I have a colleague who comes from a whole family of pack rats. His house caught fire a few years ago, and he was forced to move. He literally had to buy a farm with outbuildings to contain all the junk he'd accumulated over the years. I'm talking about boxes and boxes of rusty and rotten construction scraps, broken machinery, and stuff like boxes for toys he'd bought his kids for Christmas 20 years ago. Hauling all that crap cost him a small fortune -- the outbuildings weren't big enough so he ended up buying half a dozen old semi trailers -- and took forever. To make matters worse, his dad is even more of a pack rat than he is, and has had more than 80 years to accumulate junk.
He is so weighed down by his "possessions" that they own him, not vice versa.
12
posted on
12/18/2004 7:34:20 AM PST
by
IronJack
To: MississippiMasterpiece
Finally, I know what's wrong with my wife! I always felt like it was brain damage, now I know!
To: blam
"I collect most anything...most in my family do"
This condition can spread easily in families. I know of one case where everyone in the family collects things and they constantly battle each other for space to house their overflowing collections, to the point of sometimes throwing another member's things out!
14
posted on
12/18/2004 7:41:52 AM PST
by
spoiler2
To: JudyinCanada
"Well if the workshop, garage, and shed aren't soon cleaned out, there is going to be even more brain damage around here!"and Re: Your tagline.....
Yeah, but is your hand prehensile?
15
posted on
12/18/2004 7:59:47 AM PST
by
El Gran Salseron
(My wife just won the "Inmate of the Month Award!" :-))
To: JudyinCanada
16
posted on
12/18/2004 8:03:55 AM PST
by
OSHA
(OSHA, the Grand Wizard and Chief Executive Fascist of FreeperWorld- Industries LLC)
To: liberateUS
..Its genteic thats for sure.. 10 years ago I went to Cuba to visit relatives and ended up at my grandfather's house near the beach. One day I went strolling an brought home this really odd rock that looked like an Alien head. My aunt asked me why I picked it up and I said "just because its unique." and she says "You grandfather was the same way. He would always be picking up and collecting things.." When I got home I realized that my fathere was the same way and that I was just starting to "bloom" in my odd collecting habits. So from there on, I learned not to collect so much junk and find myslef having "conversations" with my brain regarding the reasons why I should "buy" and "not buy" items at the store....
17
posted on
12/18/2004 8:05:16 AM PST
by
FreeManWhoCan
("You're a better man than I Gunga Din.")
To: MississippiMasterpiece
Of my collection, probably 2,000 or so are first editions in "as new" condition signed by the authors. Collecting firsts is not pack-ratting.
In one biennial book purge, I bit the bullet and sold about 100 firsts: Kerouac, T. Wolfe, T. Leary, Aldous Huxley, etc. A 60's/70's theme with some odd ducks like the mint first Brit edition of Seven Pillars Of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence (found in a used book barn, paid maybe $20.00).
It was heartwrenching, but sometimes these purges must spare nothing.
Packratters can't even let go of a coffee can full of used pencils or an 8-track cassette player.
18
posted on
12/18/2004 8:06:04 AM PST
by
angkor
To: MississippiMasterpiece
I confess:
Classical music CDs
Science fiction books
Hand-made Cigars.
:-)
19
posted on
12/18/2004 8:07:54 AM PST
by
cgbg
(A new song for the Dummies--Brain Dead in O-hi-o.)
To: MississippiMasterpiece
I'm glad I found this thread. I collect articles on why people collect things ...
20
posted on
12/18/2004 8:10:09 AM PST
by
ClearCase_guy
(The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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