A classification trait turned into something great

What is there about some boys (and some men) that compel them to classify things? My younger son, Dan, when he was 12 and 14, would put together lists of the greatest running backs, the best basketball players, and, as I remember, the highest mountains in the world.

He came by this odd tendency honestly. When Dan’s father (moi) was a boy he was fascinated by airplanes. I was 12 in 1955 and this wa...