Below is a photo of the lobby of the Graduate Hotel in Berkeley. Tartine Bakery is inside. Graduate is a chain of hotels in college towns. There’s a lot of them. The hotel is using hundreds of old National Geographic magazines as decor behind the check-in desk. It reminds me of when I was a realtor. I remember that I used to see National Geographic magazines like this in people’s homes, usually in estate sales. When an elderly person died in Berkeley, their house was usually put on the market for sale by the heirs. After I walked through a house like that, I would then go into the basement or the attic and there I would sometimes find hundreds of old National Geographic magazines, all neatly arranged by date. Whenever this happened, I would wonder: “Why do people do this?” Old National Geographic magazines have no resale value. Some people told me that they save old National Geographic magazines because they have wonderful photos and stories in them, which is true, but unless you have an index of all those magazines, which nobody did back then, how would you find those photos and stories? I had an aunt who did this. She had a room full of old National Geographic magazines. She also saved Christian Science Monitor newspapers, even though she was not a Christian Scientist. I know realtors who tell me that they still see rooms like this, filled to the ceiling with old National Geographic magazines. Can you explain to me why so many people do this? I have never figured this out.