Frances, I remember leaving discs in the sun, only to have them warp so badly that they were unplayable. Who’d have thought I’d actually be warping them on purpose?

Pomona, yes, I had the white-glove handling method instilled in me as well. So much so that I still finding myself handling these flowerpots as if they were the original discs–wouldn’t want to get fingerprints on the grooves, after all… And yes, I remember all those American Heritage Society recordings. I never had many of their pressings, but I know my library still has dozens to hundreds of them, all stored securely off-site, far, far away from the turntables, not quite ready to throw them out either…

CM, I can imagine you will a house full of books, but I’m sure none of them are the literary equivalent of Barry Manilow. Even with the shelves of LPs I can’t really call myself a collector like many I knew, but it’s still a big pile of discs. Even my CDs now seem like ancient tech, the last physical connection between something held in the hand and something experienced. How do you make a candy dish out of mp3 files?

I can imagine that a pillar candle would look nice on these, but honestly flammable candle holders strike me as a real bad idea — why do we have so many of them?

At my library they’ve made some vinyl records into little racks that hold, I believe, young adult DVDs or poetry books or something. I admire the ingenuity, but a part of me cringes: I was brought up in elaborate religious rituals to protect vinyl from all dirt, dust, scratches, and harm. Vestigial reflex.