new year's

I’d like to suggest another collecting New Year’s resolution — this one based on a gripe I have.

Awhile ago I got the WKRP in Cincinnati – The Complete First Season DVD, and while I loved it in general, I was peeved to discover that, like the re-runs of WKRP, the DVD lacks the original music — even the doorbell to Jennifer’s apartment has been changed from Fly Me to the Moon to Beautiful Dreamer! Ugh.

While the DVD discloses the reason — that fees to use the music prohibited the original songs from being on the discs — the music is something I really missed. And WKRP isn’t the only television program to suffer from such royalty, licensing, &/or use fee problems. Shows such as Quantum Leap have suffered thus with DVD releases, and fans of Cold Case (a TV series very intertwined with its musical selections) have been waiting years for its first season to be released specifically because of the music rights issue.

If you’re fans of television shows, I can’t stress highly enough the need to dust-off that slighted-in-favor-of-the-DVD-player-or-TiVo VCR and videotape episodes.  This way you’ll have the original episodes as they aired and not some dubbed & doctored copy minus iconic audio moments.

And, if you go all old school, taping the entire episodes with the commercials, you’ll have the added bonus of having copies of ads.  I know it may contradict your current viewing habits.  So many of us have purchased our video appliances for the ease of erasing and skipping those ads which are (not) seen as blights on our favorite shows — and if we haven’t the right gadgets, we fast forward through the ads while viewing. But many of these commercials will one day be the classic retro and vintage ads that define childhoods and decades — you know, those favorite cereal and toy commercials you spend hours searching for and viewing on YouTube.

And if you don’t record them today, they’ll be as lost to tomorrow as those episodes with the original music.

We can’t precisely predict what technology will be around in the future, and we don’t know what shows and advertisements that we’re watching today will be the classics of tomorrow; but we can save what we like now on what gadgets we have now.  Just record & save it now — and worry about transforming & converting later.

Paper or plastic? Butter or margarine? Sugar or corn syrup? What do these questions have to do with collecting?

It’s a new year and that usually means New Year’s resolutions — most of which are based upon those best behaviors for healthy & green living.

I’m no doctor, no scientist either; but I do know that most professionals trained to know or study such things seem to agree that moderation is key and that eating the most natural foods (as opposed to the synthetic, chemical or processed alternatives) is preferable for good health.

One of the best ways to eat healthier is to actually make your own food. No, microwaving a frozen pot pie is not cooking. No, macs & cheese from a box isn’t cooking. No, toasting a frozen pizza on that pizza-cooking-thing isn’t cooking… and making a pizza from scratch doesn’t start with a Boboli crust and a jar of Ragu either. Real cooking means starting with real foods. A shocking concept, hmm?

So how does a person go about making a pizza or anything else from scratch?

Start with a cookbook. Crack it open, and follow the directions.

And if you want to really avoid those over-processed, synthetic or altered food products, get vintage cookbooks. (Those retro cookbooks are, literally, full of bologna!) Vintage cookbooks only list ingredients from the good old days when food was food not a “food product.” In fact, when you take your list of ingredients from your vintage recipe to the store, you may find yourself walking down completely foreign isles. Which is rather the entire point, if you’re trying to have better eating habits, right?

As for which is better, baking with &/or eating butter or margarine, sugar or corn syrup, I think you’ll quickly find that the more natural foods (butter and sugar) are better for you — in moderation, of course. And as they taste better, you may find moderation is more possible, your new diet more pleasurable. But hey, as always, consult with your doctor; I’m just a kooky collector.

As for the paper or plastic question, the best answer is actually option C: a reusable canvas tote. But, if you’re like our family (unwilling to spend some serious cash on canvas totes for bulk buying), get the bags that you’ll reuse rather than just toss. Maybe you need to ask your doctor about that too (they seem to like to approve things).

One thing I do know; collecting is a fabulous way of recycling and keeping things away from landfills, so collecting old cookbooks is a fabulous way to go green. And at thrift store prices, you’ll save plenty of green too. You’ll need it with all those trips to the doctor’s office for advice.