Helping us relax over the Christmas holiday is the older daughter Melissa. Conversation is always interesting when she calls or comes to visit, and often she'll share various musings that she either created or wandered across in her daily ventures. This morning over breakfast she told Linda and me that we have an issue with kipple.

Sounds serious. Are there shots involved?

As explained by Jonathan Ames' article in the Home & Garden section of The New York Times, kipple is like the little brother, or second cousin twice-removed, to the detritus of hoarding. Nowhere near as intense, overwhelming, or (perhaps) possessive, kippling occurs because the kippler (did I just make up those two words?) is more distracted by the fascinating, albeit often less important, alternative activities available than they are attracted to the important, but mundane, tasks of organizing and maintaining one's life.

I saw a lot of myself in that article…

Well at least I can put a name to it now; perhaps that's half the battle. Oh, and Jonathan: if you still need a fork we have several to spare!

Finding them is perhaps yet another battle…