Lares and Penates

A lot of people I work with have decorations in their office space.  I like to think of them as descendents of Lares and Penates, household deities and guardians.  Is it something cultural or innate that makes us desire these mascots? 

Here are some of mine (a few more fish are sitting atop my monitors):

(A side note here:  the above picture is the first taken with the 8 megapixel camera that's built into my new iPhone 5s.)

I guess I have a thing for fish.  The Pink Panther is just an old friend from my first office job.  The penguins are, of course, the Linux mascot.  One incongruity is the absence of any duck figures, for I also have a "thing" about ducks.  Odd.  Ducks.

Now that I think of it, there is a cluster of peanuts sitting atop my CD cabinet.  I've kept them because they remind me of ducks.

Oh, look!  Another penguin!

This could be an interesting basis for a photo project:  shooting the various Lares and Penates of fellow cube dwellers.