I mention all this by way of justifying momentarily, if not to you, at least to me, my information hoarding behavior. This morning while I was happily filing one of my weekly newsletters, I noticed a headline that I could not defer until later. It is just these sorts of articles that keep me hooked. A valuable therapist I once had keyed me in on the nature of the problem: variable reinforcement. Hardest pattern of behavior to break. Variable reinforcement. Cognition helped me to finally escape a bad relationship. It hasn’t helped, and likely never will, with escaping the grip of the Orioles, even if I wanted to escape. And I don’t. Likewise, my brain loves new information and will keep me wading through gobs o junk to enjoy the occasional gem.

Perhaps this variable reinforcement is that same strategy that I’m using on you, though you have much more junk to wade through than I, with my dozens of email subscriptions.

Now finally, [1] the article to make you happy that you didn’t have enough money to install granite counters during your recent kitchen remodel. See, you never know what you’ll find here.