Shawn, who will be staying with my rescue dog Gretchen
during my vacation, entered the house, passed a Panasonic RF-3000 in the living
room and then passed two more radios on the piano, a Boston Acoustics Horizon
Solo and Panasonic RF-1130, before he went into the kitchen. There he saw the
kitchen’s three radios, a Sangean PR-D5 on the microwave, a Boston Acoutics
Horizon Duo on the three-tiered fruit shelf, and a C.Crane CSW on the silver
filing cabinet.
Shawn looked around the kitchen and said, “Jesus, you’ve got
a lot of radios in this house. Dude, your kitchen alone has three radios.”
“Well,” I said, “I’m not simply a casual listener. I’m what
you might call a radio hobbyist.”
“But, dude, you can only listen to one radio at a time.
You’ve got three radios in here.”
“As I said, I’m not a casual listener. I enjoy comparing
them or using which one my whims dictate or relying on one that performs better
than the others due to inclement weather conditions, time of day or night,
choice between talk and music, and so on.”
“I assume all your radios are good. So you still only need
one.”
“All my radios perform consistently, more or less. But I’m
not a casual listener. I’m not simply listening to radio content. I’m
constantly scrutinizing each radio’s performance under different conditions.”
“But it’s not like you’re an engineer. It’s not like
someone’s paying you to keep tabs on all these frickin’ radios.”
“I do it as a hobby. It’s a passion of mine.”
“Comparing radios? I don’t get it.”
“I don’t either. That’s the compulsion aspect of it.”
“A compulsion to listen to more radios than you could
possibly need. Dude.”
“Correction. A compulsion to listen to more radios than I
could possibly ever need and be on the constant prowl for a radio that
outperforms all the ones I have. And then having found that radio, going back
on the prowl and looking for another
radio that might surpass that one and so on and so on. If you find a cure for
this compulsion, please let me know, but I don’t think you will.”
“Dude.”
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