Many people collect stuff, certain stuff, that is. It can be as common as baseball cards, a bit further out like comic books (just of a certain type, of course!), or highly specialized, like those collectors of figurines of pigs, cows, frogs, unicorns, clowns, Santa, or whatever. Some people collect pens, paperweights, matchbook covers, post cards, even electrical insulators. My mother collected antique bottles, much like those pictured above. The bottles in turn collected dust, although they did look pretty on window shelves with light passing through them.
Now collecting things can be considered a hobby, but if it gets out of hand can become an obsession, an addiction, or a form of obsessive-compulsive behavior. At the very least, you can soon wind up with storage problems for your “collection.” If uncontrolled, some collections can take over rooms, or even entire houses…
Now collections represent pet interests that largely are not shared with the general population. Others may regard your collection as “over-the-top” or weird. A collection is more a labor of love than a real financial investment, and their value is a niche market restricted to other collectors of the same thing. Few are those who have financed a college education with their “Beanie Baby” collection…
So if your plushie collection is getting out of hand, it may be time for your “higher self” to ask the collector in you, “Why are you doing this?!,” and break out of the collection cycle. But I’m keeping my foxes, anyways. Maybe I’m just trying to reproduce, I dunno… 🦊
– – Many strange things may be found in New York City, including people who walk about in unlicensed character costumes offering tourists the opportunity to have their children photographed with them in the expectation of getting a several buck tip in return. These characters are known to frequent Times Square and elsewhere, and may be dressed up as Sesame Street notables, Mario of Nintendo fame, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, or perhaps the Statue of Liberty, to name a few; some of the outfits are poor copies, barely recognizable. Trouble is, the hustlers tend to be a bit aggressive, and at times have been known to bother or pursue their marks for photo privileges, demanding money afterwards before putting a photographed child down. There have been ugly incidents as well; last summer, someone dressed as Grover lost it, and burst into an antisemitic rant in public…a Super Mario once groped a woman, and a Spiderman even punched a mom! Hardly your friendly neighborhood Spidey…
– – While engaged in a conservation project to determine how to help turtles cross the road safely, a Clemson University student inadvertently discovered a disturbing fact: some drivers deliberately swerve on the road, not to miss turtles, but to intentionally hit them. 
– – With the Xmas season almost upon us and overeating indulgences likely to ensue, it might be worthwhile considering the differences between competitive eating and fad eating. While it’s debatable whether competitive eating is really a sport, there are at least rules and regulations which govern it, and the items consumed tend to actually be conventional foods, such as hot dogs. Fad or event eating in contrast tends to be less structured with at times potentially dangerous consequences to participants; the items consumed, while technically edible, tend not to be commonly found on family dinner tables, such as insects. Other fad or event consumptions have involved normally harmless and indeed vital items, although even water proved fatal to one contestant when consumed to extreme excess over a short time. Fad eating has been spurred in recent years by the advent of reality TV shows, and feed off of the gross-out factor involved. If $100 is offered to someone to eat a worm, there will be takers and those who watch.
– – We would advise you, good readers, not to be eating anything while reading the following post. Having given that warning, we now will reveal the sad but true tale of a West Palm Beach Florida man who choked to death in October after eating dozens of live cockroaches in a contest staged as as a promotional event by a pet store in Deerfield Beach to win an ivory ball python.- -I swear that I am not making this up!
– – Too many people tend to adopt exotic animals as part of a spur-of-the-moment craze, only to abandon them when the realities of their ownership hits home. Sadly owls are one of the latest examples of this trend, with their popularity spurred by the Harry Potter movies and Harry’s owl, Hedwig. 
FOXSYLVANIA 
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