Restless mind syndrome

I'd like to claim my attention span is longer than the average person's, but in truth it's strictly short form: magazines, blogs, sitcoms, 150-word record reviews, snack-food ingredients. I try not to think of this as a bad trait, but rather a way to express my interest in many things in a limited amount of time. 

Since the idea for this blog was born, I've had many minor obsessions. More fleeting than a hobby but more intense than a passing curiosity, mini passions occur suddenly. Some linger, some dim quickly. An idea or a thing gets under my skin for a while, but I can't scratch that itch forever. This isn't about staying power. It's about gut instinct. In recent weeks, here are a few things I've fixated on:

The Larkspur pattern of the Allegheny Ware imprint of Canonsburg Pottery, made in Canonsburg, Penn., on the former site of a radium refining mill. The place is known as "the most radioactive town in America," and, according to Wikipedia, "Canonsburg pottery can be detected by Geiger counter." I bought four pieces of it at Goodwill!

Antique wedding cake toppers. Contemporary wedding toppers can be so cheesy. Necking doves? Mickey and Minnie? Precious Moments?  I opted for chocolate birds.

Bon Iver's "Skinny Love." This song slays me every time. The sound is so deliciously murky, as if the singer, his ancient guitar and haunting falsetto are at the bottom of a barrel.

Christian Bale, actor. I watched The Machinist and American Psycho in quick succession and decided Bale isn't much of an actor; I just like to look at him.

Mad Men, the Emmy-winning drama on AMC. It's the early 1960s. Men wear hats, and women wear gloves. Inequality is rampant, but the people look so good. 

Advertising exec Don Draper (left, played by Jon Hamm) drinks whiskey during the workday out of platinum-rimmed double old-fashioned glasses. I will have those glasses one of these days. Unless, of course, I get obsessed with something else in the meantime.