# What's your most esoteric or arcane hobby or interest? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563 "2006-08-13T16:40:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/61 "2006-08-14T20:07:12Z")
[QUOTE=Corporate Hippie] I’ve been wanting to get back into lego for some time now, but actually starting to build a collection from scratch has proven rather daunting. I like the orange mech, by the way! 😃 [/QUOTE] Ebay is you friend for restarting, hang out looking for big deals on mixed assortments. Lego is easy to clean so second hand isn’t much of a problem. I collect Esoteric interests. I usually have a few dozen on the go at any one time 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/62 "2006-08-14T20:09:57Z")
Count me in on the arcane comparative mythology lot. 🆒 I have a few tarot decks, all of them a bit more outre’ than the usual run. Vertigo Tarot, Morgan’s Tarot, Stick Figure Tarot. I’m learning to spin on a drop spindle, and I have access to a friend who raises sheep. 😃 Did a spot of bookbinding when I was younger. One of these years I’m going to quit my job and go to a bookbinding school I read about – the only certified school in the US, I think. _dream_ That would totally rock. Oh! String figures. I have Caroline F. Jayne’s book ‘String Figures and How to Make Them’ with all the instructions for making cool string figures. Do I win yet? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/63 "2006-08-14T20:11:02Z")
[QUOTE=SailBunny] Hunting with hounds. Beagling, Foxhunting ('chasing I spose)…competed in the junior divisions in Steeplechase meets. [/QUOTE] I don’t run my own hounds, but I do meet up with some local houndsmen every year and go bear hunting. That’d be Treeing Walkers and Blueticks, and some Redbones, not Beagles, but I imagine it’s all the same sort of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/64 "2006-08-14T21:11:43Z")
Esoteric Hobbies, eh. I’ve got a few. I have a sizable collection of bad movies. Largely cheesy old sci-fi and horror films (MST3K fodder) but some more recent movies and several other genres. Among my favorites is my DVD of **Santa Claus** (the one where Santa fights the devil in Mexico) and my VHS of the train-wreck of a children’s inspirational video **Mr. T’s Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool**. I have 106 such movies (and that’s only counting the ones I’ve watched; I have about 30 that I just haven’t gotten around to yet.) I also have a modest collection of snow globes, not huge, but coming along. Maybe 15 or so at the moment. Mostly your basic tourist junk. I try to come back with one from everywhere I vacation. The highlight of my collection hales from Juneau, Alaska and is similar to [this one](http://www.musicbox-shop.com/images/ptr047.jpg) only the globe is a little smaller, there is no plaque and the word Juneau and an outline of Alaska are etched into the wooden base. Oh yeah, and the moose 24 karat gold and the “snow” is gold flakes. Who else owns a golden moose? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/65 "2006-08-14T21:59:36Z")
[QUOTE=Lord Il Palazzo] Esoteric Hobbies, eh. I’ve got a few. [/QUOTE] All that whilst running Across at the same time, impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/66 "2006-08-14T22:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=shamrock227] **Dijon Warlock** , pop me an email with your mailing address. I have a cookbook from a number of years back from a group in Ocean County, NJ (have family down there). I’d be glad to send it to you for your collection. [/QUOTE] THANK YOU! I will do that as soon as Yahoo lets me back into my email (they’re evidently reconfiguring their home page, and they won’t let me access my mail right now). I have a Paypal account (which–I’ll admit–I haven’t used in awhile; but if it works, I’m there), so I am willing to send you some $$ for shipping and the book itself, but right now Yahoo isn’t letting me into my mail. When they do (if the offer still stands), I will get my mailing info to you. ---
**Author:** ![shamrock227](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/67 "2006-08-14T22:46:59Z")
I’ve got it pulled out and ready to send. I don’t want any money for it - you are doing me a favor helping me get rid of some of my stuff. I’m on Yahoo, too - so if you can’t send, I can’t receive. So, take your time and when I get your info, I will send the book on it’s merry way 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![shamrock227](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/68 "2006-08-14T22:52:07Z")
oh, by the way, it was done in 1990 as a fund raiser for the Ocean County Girl Scouts… Sounds like the type of book you are looking for, right? And, I just found out today that my office is putting together a cookbook for something or other – I will try to grab an extra copy of that for you (probably Nov-Dec timeframe). ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/69 "2006-08-15T01:11:36Z")
I am a member of a really obscure English group called **The Kilvert Society.** The group is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of Reverend Frances Kilvert, an obscure Victorian curate whose diaries, published 70 years after his death, briefly became minor classics of English prose. Virtually all of the members of the Society are practicing Anglicans in their 70’s and 80’s… while I am an American secular humanist under 50. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/70 "2006-08-15T02:15:05Z")
Steel guitar, aka Hawaiian guitar, aka lap-style guitar. Basically, it’s playing guitar flipped into your lap, with the strings raised way off of the neck, so that almost the only way you can make sounds is with a piece of metal pressed down against the strings. (This is not the electric steel guitar prevalent in modern country music). Before electricity, those Hawaiian guitarists (who influenced blues slide players and bluegrass Dobro players) really wrang the heck out of the tools. They took guitars and various pieces of metal (knives, combs, automobile wrist pins, lipsticks, medicine bottles) and developed an amazing sound with them. People think I’m nuts when I get to contrasting the pros and cons thereof. (I’m a 47-year old engineer who plays for fun in bars). ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/71 "2006-08-15T02:21:44Z")
I collect baseball cards or photos of professional players whose last names begin with the letter “X”. It’s been pretty quiet since Joe Xavier retired, but I’m always on the lookout for the next subject. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/72 "2006-08-15T03:04:29Z")
I like fictional timelines. Whenever there is a chance to do so in a novel, I begin compiling a timeline. If the timeline to a novel or series is on the Internet (like the Harry Potter novels) then I don’t do it. I’m currently putting together a rough timeline for the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I’ve also done one for “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/73 "2006-08-15T03:48:33Z")
**Aggripina** , do you have any interest in Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series? I once wrote a document detailing the chronology of all of Kinsey’s stories (which include eight short stories in addition to the better-known alphabetical novels). ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/74 "2006-08-15T07:58:39Z")
**shamrock227** : You are seriously groovy, my friend. I don’t know what it is with Yahoo, but when I try to hit the mail this week, it just sits and clocks. Yes, it _does_ sound exactly like the type of thing I’m looking for. When Yahoo gets its whatnots together, you’ll be hearing from me. Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/75 "2006-08-15T09:00:11Z")
Wow — this thread was so fascinating, I had to take notes! First of all, allow me to say that _you are all so cool_. Definitely a broad selection of the erudite and/or bracing! > [@](#): > > I also have a small collection of objects I’ve collected from off the ground … I am told that in France, found objects are sometimes called “objects de passe fracteur” (sp.?), “objects with a fractured past”. I have many of these myself. > [@](#): > > A small choir in which I sing likes to unearth and sing at mass Palestrina masses … “Like the hart thirsteth after the fountain” .. beautiful. My HS choir teacher was into Palestrina also. > [@](#): > > I collected cat whiskers for 14 years. .. I only did for three, cos my kitty vanished. Never really got over it. I always wondered what kind of paintbrush they might make. > [@](#): > > I like dumpster diving. … You said it! Now then ---- > [@](#): > > but Pi in binary mostly is not). Amazing! I never thought about expressing decimal numbers in binary! Wouldn’t pi take an awful lot of places? And finally: > [@](#): > > I collect photographs of lost gloves .. Mangetout!! That is awesome! Been meaning to tell you, I love your name, too. So… these photos of lost gloves aren’t online anywhere, are they? As for me, I collect seeds and pods, and sometimes husks. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/76 "2006-08-15T11:51:21Z")
[QUOTE=shamrock227] [Quote=What Exit? Arcane Interest: Comparative Mythology. No real reason, just for the fun of it.[/quote] So, you’re the other person that reads this stuff. I knew there had to be someone else out there. [/QUOTE] And this makes three of us. I’ve been fascinated by it since I was a kid. **Topologist** , I also used to be a change-ringer – in Hawaii! I still would be if there were a tower within 100 miles of me. As it is, I still write out change-ringing patterns if I’m having trouble with a bit of programming. Something about the progression helps my brain sort out the logic of what I’m trying to do. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/77 "2006-08-15T14:09:26Z")
I spend nearly every weekend in summer playing top-level croquet. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/78 "2006-08-15T14:16:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] It’s not quite arcane, but I am in the field of humor research. It’s all very serious. .. [/QUOTE] I wanted to study humor but I was afraid that everyone would laugh at me. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/79 "2006-08-15T14:54:13Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] It’s not quite arcane, but I am in the field of humor research. It’s all very serious. We have conferences and a journal, and we write books. And we’re not funny. Actually, I was unintentionally funny at the most recent conference–the newspapers got a shot of me with my head down on the desk during the president’s address (conclusion, if the professionals are asleep, this is obviously boring and therefore _very serious business_). [/QUOTE] Please forgive this mini-hijack to a thread I started, but in your research and classification and analysis of humor, have the professionals in your field ever satisfactorily addressed the issue of the “X-number Basic Jokes”? I ask this because Steve Allen, who was somewhat a student and authority on humor, along with a number of other fields of interest, once made a statement, that I either heard or read, along the lines of, “There are only (insert the number here) jokes. The others are just variations of these themes.” I have tried to locate some official verdict on this issue ever since whenever it was. With no luck. Can you address this issue, please? End of mini-hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563/80 "2006-08-15T15:17:50Z")
[QUOTE=brujaja] And finally: .. Mangetout!! That is awesome! Been meaning to tell you, I love your name, too. So… these photos of lost gloves aren’t online anywhere, are they? [/QUOTE] Click on Mangetout’s name where it appears and you will go to his profile [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?u=14424](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) Yes it is awesome, or scary, or both maybe? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-esoteric-or-arcane-hobby-or-interest/368563.md?page=5)