Moderation in all things.
― Terence
Some men collect women; some, guns; some, cars and trucks.
I collect British cups.
Specifically, blue and white porcelain cups made in Worcester in the mid-18th century by a one Dr. Wall.
Like Colonel Sanders later did for fried chicken, Dr. Wall perfected a "secret recipe" for making porcelain that rocketed his pottery to fame throughout England.
Collecting is a mania, according to psychologists, but an innocuous one.
Until it slides into the form of slavery known as compulsion.
Then, what began as a hobby looks like pathology.
Mine might be termed cuppamania.
I have it badly, but not as badly as British porcelain scholar Michael Berthoud. He owns 1,743 British cups.
Book collectors are also prone to compulsion.
They can swiftly slide from bibliophilia into bibliomania.
They can slide even further into bibliophagy (eating books), bibliotaphy (burying books) and bibliokleptomania (stealing books).
He stole over 23,600 books before he was caught and convicted in 1991. A forensic psychiatrist claimed at the trial Blumberg was schizophrenic, but the judge didn't buy it and gave him four and a half years.
Psychoanalysts note that the collecting bug bites men more than women, except when it comes to shoes.
When my wife cracks wise about my cups, I can point to her shoes.
And if that doesn't work, I can point to her books.
She owns nearly as many books as Michael Berthoud owns cups. Most, for some reason, are about Charlemagne.
That makes her officially a francobioliomaniac.
