Today, an innocuous question about floppy disks led Mentor Boss to show me all the wonderfully outdated pieces of once-cutting-edge technology in his office, like an early Palm Pilot and brick-sized cellphone (it was weighty, flipped out, and looked just like a prop). At first, he described them as a collection, but as our conversation went on, I realized that he had used all of these things when they were new. He was that nerdy resident carrying around a giant phone so he could take patient calls wherever he was.
Moi: Is it really a collection if you just never threw these things away?
Mentor Boss: What is the difference? I don't understand the question.
In that case, I am a collector of empty calories and back issues of The New Yorker.
