Twelve years ago my dad had his first heart attack. When he called and asked me what he should do about his chest pains, I said, "Call 911." Later I found the piece of paper he'd written it down on. I spent the next 20 minutes wandering around my condo, wondering what I needed to bring to the hospital. I ended up bringing a few books.

I have a deep automatic response to the information that someone will be lying around doing nothing for a few days. The response is to supply the affected with reading material. Much of my hoarding behavior is centered around making sure I have just the right reading material at hand for any given scenario. Too tired to continue a novel? Try an aged newspaper! Newspaper too unwieldy in bed? Maybe a nice magazine! etc.

Speaking of magazines, I, like many people, have trouble getting rid of magazines once they are in the house. So glossy! So I've come up with the perfect solution. I check them out of the library. Our library carried all the good leftist rags (Mother Jones, Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening) and as far as I noticed, none of the right. I'm really enjoying trying new ones and returning them after three weeks. Why, it's brilliant, this library idea. Ours also has Wii games. Truly magical.