A mid-life crisis is an anxious striving to hang on to something that is slipping away. For some this means desperately clinging to a youthful self-image and manifests itself in a hankering after firm young flesh. In my case, the fit came on me to collect stove-top Corningware, which is no longer marketed in the United States. By the time the mania passed, I was the owner of enough Corningware to outfit my entire townhouse building. My trove includes one museum piece labeled "Pyro-ceram," the original brand name circa 1958.
