The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 1, January 4, 2004, Article 25

SO: IS THERE A CURE?

Peter Koch heard about the incident as well. He writes:
"Man Buried Alive Under His Books" was the radio voice
grabber last Tuesday morning. The story was included in
every NYC/Metro area news broadcast. Later in the day,
by the time the nationally-syndicated Paul Harvey ("Now
you know the rest of the story") broadcast the calamity, the
story came to include magazines, telephone books,
newspapers, direct mail, and any and all printed matter of
every stripe. The unfortunate episode of the 43-year-old man
living in a tiny Bronx, New York apartment will likely catch
national media's commentary and anecdotal inserts. It took
emergency workers, neighbors and some twenty firefighters
an hour to dig through the debris just to reach and free the
man who had been trapped for two days, never hitting the
floor.

The incident recalled the compulsive hoarding extremes of the
legendary "Hermit Hoarders of Harlem." In 1947 the Collyer
brothers were buried by an avalanche of urban junk that filled
to the hilt their four-story brownstone. Other than a tiny space
of passageway which one became bruised while navigating
the stairs, not an inch of wall, floor, or ceiling was exposed.

Both brothers were found dead; one trapped under a pile of
papers, the other died of starvation. Name it, they had it. Tall
statues, huge chandeliers, fourteen grand pianos (!), bags and
boxes of rotten groceries, and an automobile chassis!

It was estimated the Collyer brothers had accumulated some
136 tons of books and paper.

Obviously, with the pathological behavior here there's more
to the above stories. But the disturbing picture prompted
personal action, and a New Year's resolution: gotta get
organized.

I immediately removed varying piles of catalogues and books
off the floor. Yes, I had convinced myself those piles were
temporary and would return to the shelves any day now. Piles
left on the floor, and you find yourself stepping over them
- no matter how neat and clean the piles - is not good. It
would be nice to collate them back in their proper places, but
the problem is the piles are all current work. Waiting for one
last kernel of fact; waiting on a correspondent's answer to a
question.

Is there a disciplined method NBS members use in their
ongoing research activities? Can our computers help?

My piles are now neatly arranged on a long table. I dare not
separate them. At least, I know for the current project, the
book or answer is in one of those piles; and I usually know
which pile.

Over the years we've all seen or experienced at one time or
another the response to a request for a book, reprint, etc.
"Yes, I have it, but I can't quite put my hands on it." Or worse,
having it and not wanting to make that confessional, "Sorry,
I don't have it."

Thoughts? The best for all of us in the new year."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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