NEWSBLUR.Models.FeedOrFolder = Backbone.Model.extend({ initialize: function(model) { console.log(["constructing model", model]); if (_.isNumber(model)) { this.model = NEWSBLUR.assets.feeds.get(model); } else { this.model = new NEWSBLUR.Collections.Folders(); this.title = _.keys(model)[0]; var children = model[this.title]; this.model.parse(children); } } }); NEWSBLUR.Collections.Folders = Backbone.Collection.extend({ model: NEWSBLUR.Models.FeedOrFolder, parse: function(models) { console.log(["parse", this.models, models]); this.reset(models); } });