Is It OK To Fetishize Cookware?

I love this column of Mark Morford's! (Click on the Post's Title to go to his column)

Mark! A fetish for cookware has dominated my household for years, at time it overshadows our sex life! (Mark's never gotten the bug so he just bitches about his occasionally unattended erection!) Nevertheless, I have won him back a bit with a little footsie under the table as he feasts on a particularly fine range of culinary fair. The trouble, you'll find, is that it won't stop at pots and pans. The brushed stainless Kitchen Aid mixer will beckon, the fine French steel Mandolin will sing it's siren song, the huge British cream stoneware mixing bowls, the hammered copper sugar pot or the glorious copper fish poacher with it's bright and shiny inserts. Soon you are wooed by Wustof or Sabatier knives to chop and dice and julienne on a fine 3" solid maple cut-board, And it makes perfect sense to have the polished stainless food processors in at least two, if not three sizes. Then you realize you need a second mixer, - the big 6 qt. for your bread dough - and they don't make it in brushed stainless! (I finally settled on a pearlized grey, very complimentary.) And, then, dear man, out come the BIG BUCKS. Will it be a Wolf Range or La Cornue Rolls, and oh, they need a stainless HOOD, make sure you have a big enough hole for the vent. Chinois for sauces. Blender for sauces. Stocked pantry; oils, vinegars, sea salts (yes, several varieties for different purposes) The grinders for the salts and peppers. Price those. The nice little French aluminum ones start at $50.00 each. And my creme de la creme of once or twice a year usage but cannot bear to ever part with it - my Italian, all stainless steel 300 horse power ice cream and gelato maker. Damn it looks good... Have fun, my friend. When the bug bites, it bites hard. I finished my degree at the CCA; I think it well may be just to justify my shopping!