Year of the Pack Rat

Democracy In Action

2008-08-13T21:24:00.006-04:00

I found this sign outside Government Center in Boston. I assume there was some kind of protest and this was left over. I've been to tons of protests, and the one thing that unites them all is that in the end people leave their signs all over the place.

Anyway, it really is Ted Kennedy's public office number. The most unusual thing about this sign is what's on the back:

At first glance it's an ordinary memo sent home with kids at school... but it's from 1975. I mean, I re-use paper, but as much of a pack-rat as I am, I don't even have school memos from recently, much less from 33 years ago!

Don't Worry, Be Sucky!

2008-08-13T20:55:00.004-04:00

I hope Tim was flattered knowing that someone used up the special smiley-face tape for the label machine just to let him know how much he sucks.

I also hope Tim is flattered to know that his suckitude label is the very first thing I've scanned with my brand new scanner!

!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-28T19:08:00.000-04:00

I have a bunch of stuff to post on here, but my scanner is on strike. Alas.

"Issac Hayes"

2008-01-10T20:36:00.001-05:00

I got 2 dollar bills today, both of which had "Issac Hayes" written on them in pencil. I don't think it was Mr. Hayes himself who wrote them, since he spelled his name wrong! Maybe these bills are a special denomination, one that is worth its weight in Chocolate Salty Balls!

Mystery postcard

2007-12-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

My grandfather died a few months ago, and I went with my mother to help clean out the house. My grandmother (she died 20 years ago) was an antique collector/dealer, as well as a notorious pack rat. I found this stash of postcards in the house, most from the 1920s, though some were as old as 1906 and some as recent as 1967. They all were must have been from the same place-- they are mostly addressed to Margaret Burnette, her daughter Florence Burnette (later Hawes) and Louis Hawes, Florence's future husband. They all lived at 19 Birch Crescent in Rochester, which is now inhabited by a yoga instructor. I don't know why I find this all so fascinating.

Anyway, This postcard is from June 6, 1910, before Florence and Louis were married. It features obvious poor spelling. Was it a joke? I mean, the spelling is seriously atrocious! , and it's written to Florence's mother on a postcard, no less!

here it is for your perusal:

"Deer Mrs. Burnet:__,
I don't like to micks up in uther peeples afares, but I tho't I ought to tell you that I saw that Mr. Hawes with anuther girl won nite at a show. May be you no it all reddy but I thot mayve Florence wouldnt like it & would jilt him fer mee if I tolt you. I have all ways been troo to every girl I went with & would be troo to hur. Pleese let me no rite away. _______"

Bus system yay!

2007-12-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

This apartment has "lower utilities than Coventry" AND it's only $600 for a one-bedroom. Where is this place? I want to move in! With rents like that, "Cherry Creek" obviously isn't anywhere near where I found this, in Porter Square. This place is located on a bus line ("yay!") and apparently includes refreshments? Also has a medicine cabinet. Rock on.

YMCA directions

2007-12-02T15:32:00.001-05:00

I had no idea there was a YMCA in downtown Boston. Whoa, looking at their website, they have a pool and everything. Rock on!

Unfortunately, 14 Beacon St. is the Congregational Library, not the YMCA. Maybe the writer of this glaringly yellow sticky note was simple listening to the Village People?

Call Higgins

2007-12-02T15:22:00.001-05:00

If you were to diagram my brain, it would probably look a lot like this note. It has everything-- telephone numbers, random scribbles, to-do things, appointments, the works. The thing that sets this rather untidy note apart are the descriptions of the people whose phone numbers are on here. For example, Marie Claire has "short gray hair" and "glasses" (underlined).

Another person is 5'11" and has a short, blond girlfriend who's 5'6". On what planet are either 5'11" and 5'6" (for a girl) short? The writer of this note must be 7 feet tall.

Blowhard

2007-12-02T15:16:00.001-05:00

This is a flash card of some sort. What kind of class/seminar/training session would require one to know the word "blowhard."? Is it an SAT Vocabulary word? I don't think I've ever used the word "blowhard" in my life. Perhaps I should start. Also, I always thought the lined side of the index card was the *back*. Perhaps I've been getting it wrong all these years.

BABY

2007-11-01T23:47:00.001-04:00

This is one of those things you get in thematic packets especially for enhancing scrapbooks. To scrapbookers, there's nothing creepy about an empty pair of blue pajamas wearing a bib. However, to me, I thought it was vaguely unsettling to find this carefully stuck to a fence post on my way to work. I like how the bib says BABY, in case there was some doubt as to who should be wearing it.

Christmas was like, totally rad, bro!

2007-11-01T23:36:00.000-04:00

Though he has the baggy pants and sweatshirt, and his hat is barely holding onto his head, you can see in his awkward stance and semi-smirk that he knows how tough it is to look gangsta while standing in front of a Santa Claus made out of wooden boxes. This apparently wasn't a high priority photo-- it was taken 12/26/04, but not developed until 02/02/05! Found on the sidewalk near Park St. Station.

3 Norm

2007-11-01T23:28:00.001-04:00

This is a sticky note haphazardly folded in half. I've tried to speculate on what is "really short" as opposed to "norm," but I can't even think of anything entertaining enough to write here!

Ruby Reeboks

2007-09-11T23:32:00.000-04:00

These are quite possibly the awesomest shoes ever made. I found them on trash day near my house on the way to the train. There was a silver shoe exactly like these, but I could only find one. These shoes look unworn. How could someone throw them away? They are awesome! They would have even been awesome in 1987! They are a little too long for me, but they otherwise fit quite nicely. I love them!

Special Pass

2007-09-11T23:26:00.000-04:00

I found this note stuck to a bench near South Station. It's at the place where you get the shuttle bus to take you to the concerts being held at the Fleet Pavilion or Bank of America Pavilion, or whatever they're calling that tent thing with overpriced beer now. Perhaps the bearers of this Special Pass weren't able to get backstage since they left this behind!

Passport girl

2007-08-05T23:49:00.000-04:00

I hope this girl isn't trying to leave the country soon, because she dropped her passport picture in the box of Snickers bars where I work. I saw a girl that I thought was her the next day, but she hadn't lost any passport pictures, and looked kind of confused and creeped out that I would mention such a thing. Oh well.

Cookies for Luke

2007-07-22T14:35:00.000-04:00

I don't know why I'm fascinated by people's grocery lists. Maybe because you find contradictions like this-- rice milk (eeww!) & tofu, along with chicken fingers and sausage.

To my sister Edy

2007-07-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

I found this picture on the ground when I was in Jr. high school; it was one of the first random things I saved back in the fledgling stages of my compulsive collecting crap days. Back then, this school picture, with its faux-venetian blind background was pleasantly tacky. Now, having withstood the test of time even worse than the cheesy cloudy sky backdrop that all my school pics had (the default no-frills one), it looks really funny. poor Mary's sweater (which undoubtedly came almost down to her knees as was the style back then) looks like an ancient relic. Ah, the school school-picture experience memories come flooding back-- the carefully placed hand on face, the vacant smile that one only contorts their face into for pictures of this nature... I Recently dug out of a box of random crap I found, the best part of this picture is the note on the back of the picture, which is signed "~~from~~ LOVE Mary." I didn't know either Edy or Mary; I assume they went to different schools from me.

The Monkees Go Mod

2007-07-10T23:25:00.000-04:00

OK, this isn't exactly a salvage; I actually paid 10 cents for this at a garage sale, but I like it for the same weird, voyeuristic reasons.

Let me introduce a little slice of cultural history in paperback form:

What makes this book awesome is the former owner's apparent dislike of Peter Tork. I mean, it's not funny that he or she didn't like Peter; he was always my favorite. It's funny how thorough he or she was at defacing Peter's picture and even his name thoroughout the pages.

Let's start with angrily scratched X's on the cover:

Open the book and it is filled with crossed out pictures of Mr. Tork, ranging from a lazy "Peter kinda stinks"

to full-on PETER TORK ATE MY BABY!!!

Note how Peter's name is also crossed out on his chair. This person's hatred of the man who wrote the closing theme to the Monkees TV show spared nothing, including Peter's own biography pages:

Oddly, the book owner has circled the word "Chicago." Chicago. What could it mean? Is the book's owner (I'm sick of writing "the book's former owner" all the time, so from here on, I will refer to him or her as Spanky.) from Chicago? Does Spanky like to listen to the band Chicago? Did he or she take a really nice vacaion there once? Alas, we shall never have more insight into Spanky's psyche.

We do, know, however, that Spanky doesn't approve of smoking, as evidenced by this annotation of Davy Jones:

Here's a close-up of that lightly-pencilled in X:

This small declaration of anti-smoking is nothing compared to the streams of snot, horns and moustaches that poor Peter got in ballpoint pen. The defacing of Peter's images were done with such vigor that the pages were dented 3 pages later.

What did Peter Tork ever do to Spanky? What?!?!?

James P. Walsh

2007-06-24T22:52:00.000-04:00

Sear God? Sean God? I'm not sure what this sticky note says. There are a lot of James P. walshes out there, including an economist who wrote several books, a couple of lawyers, someone who directed a short film in 1998... I'm not sure what this note was about. Alas. We probably shall never know.

Roadkill

2007-06-14T20:38:00.001-04:00

I found this skunk in the road outside the Avon, MA Newbury Comics. Both of this poor skunk's eyes have been ripped out. Aside from that, though, he's in pretty good shape. He smells much better than your average roadkill skunk! I like the way he sassily has his hands on his hips, as if to say, "Car, oh no you di'nt just run over me! Oh no YOU DID NOT!"

gbfb.org

2007-06-02T13:53:00.001-04:00

This attractive button is advertising the Greater Boston Food Bank.

I found it on the ground near Park Street Station in Boston. Park Street is one of the major stations in Boston for both visitors and locals alike, so I always find the most dropped items there.

Yellow Box = 016, 354

2007-06-02T13:45:00.001-04:00

Most of the fun of picking up other peoples' lists is trying to decipher what they mean. Grocery lists are generally fairly straightforward, but to-do lists and whatever this is are usually more of a puzzle.

I can't read this person's handwriting too well, and I can't begin to guess what this is about. I thought maybe it was a list of books in a library to find, but the numbers don't correspond to the Library of Congress cataloging system. If it were the Dewey Decimal system, there are too many numbers...

Whatever this person needed to do, it looks like he or she did it all, judging by the X's. Good job!

the dreaded FAFSA

2007-06-02T13:39:00.001-04:00

I don't envy this person's life one bit. Filling out the FAFSA (a financial aid application for college; you have to fill one out every year) is one thing I'm glad I will never have to do again as long as I live.

This poor soul has job classwork to do (correct papers, finish grades), his or her own schoolwork (research, outline) and still find time to pay rent and pay off a student account. Ah, the life of a budding academic.

Found in Kenmore Square a few weeks ago

Re-Enter Long Island

2007-06-02T13:37:00.001-04:00

Jermaine C. can re-enter Long Island now. Well, I hope he still can even though he seems to have lost his paper. Found on the Common, Boston.

Hi, My Name Is...

2007-06-02T13:34:00.001-04:00

I found this sticker on the ground near Park St. Station-- it was folded in half, so I scanned both sides and put them together. It's written in black marker on a name tag-sized sticker --perhaps someone is known as the "Bi Polar Express!"

After Treatment

2007-06-02T13:31:00.001-04:00

This person's life doesn't sound like it's going too smoothly -- he or she has to fill out an accident report, but only "after treatment."

Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers

2007-05-29T21:34:00.001-04:00

It wasn't long after May 16th that I found this ticket... it seems remarkably beaten up and crappified for only being a couple of days old. but then, looking at the Red Sox website, the May 16th game was postponed until the next day-- maybe the ticketholder was standing in the rain waiting for the game. I found this near Government Center in Boston.

I recomend this book to people who like fantasie

2007-05-29T20:45:00.001-04:00

This looks like a pretty cool book. I may just read it! I found this report on my way to the train a few months ago.

Grandpa, put down that chainsaw!

2007-05-29T20:00:00.002-04:00

I found 2 contact sheets and one family photograph perched on top of a trash pile outside a photo developing place in Government Center a couple of months ago. the photos don't seem like anything extraordinary on first glance, but once you start really looking at them and realizing you have absolutely no context for them whatsoever, they get a little more interesting.

For example:
It looks like the dad and the groom are about to make out. The mom is obviously not paying attention, but doing a good job of pretending, and the woman fiddling with her necklace just looks bored.

I enlarged some of the pics from the contact sheets, to see what they were. i thought perhaps I'd find pictures of a murder, Blow-Up style. No such luck. However, I did find that grandpa wields a pretty mean chainsaw!

No Christmas would be complete without a disembodied hand holding some lightbulbs! -->

<-- this baby is not impressed with the situation, but the Volvo in the background is pretty swank.

<-- Uncle Bob was slightly drunk when he took this crooked picture.

I'm glad someone thought to take a picture of the apple magnet on the refrigerator! I'm not sure what the thing in the middle is, but it looks important. -->

<-- Grandpa is the king of his wood.

ANDREW, ANDREW, ANDREW!

2007-05-29T19:55:00.000-04:00

I found this drawing on the ground on my way to the train a couple of weeks ago. It is on flourescent pink paper with black electrical tape holding it folded shut. Andrew may not the greatest speller yet, but at least he has a sense of color and texture!

I'm a walking Nike ad

2007-05-15T21:36:00.000-04:00

That bicycling guy who got his balls chopped off from cancer started the whole trend of wearing silicone bracelets with some kind of affirmation to raise awareness on them. The originals said "Live Strong," and the proceeds went to some charity. However, in the years since he started it, many thousands of different plastic bracelets have cropped up. These range from the ones I got out of the gumball machine at the local drugstore that say greetings in Mexican slang (I've gotten "¡Oralé!" and "¿Que Honda?" so far) to Archie McPhee's own collections which raise awareness of concepts such as "misanthrope," "ennui," and "apathy." There are also a whole host of religious type ones as well as bands for sports fans, bland people who just want to have something trite to say, vacationers, dead people, and to raise awareness of princesses. You can even get your own bracelets made in bulk! Whoa. This site even gives suggestions which colors can raise awareness for what (i.e., yellow is for "general cancer," dark blue is for "child abuse and colon cancer.")

Anyway, I found this lovely unblemished white bracelet on the floor of the store where I work. I've been wearing it ever since I found it a couple of weeks ago because it cracks me up so hard. No, I'm not suggesting you go out and buy Nike products right now. I just find it really funny that there is an actual bracelet that says, "ONCE I GET THE BALL YOU'RE AT MY MERCY." There are even quotation marks around the saying on the bracelet itself. It has a little Nike logo guy on it, which is how I realized I was a walking Nike billboard. The little guy with the basketball is Nike Air Jordan, right? Or is that something else?

Had I written the sentiment, I would have put a comma after the "ball," but I don't think it's 100% necessary. I think I want to get a bunch made up that say, "ONCE I GET A COMMA, YOUR GRAMMAR IS AT MY MERCY!" perhaps I'll just get some to raise punctuation awareness-- with various punctuation marks on them that say "SEMI-COLON POWER!" and stuff (the colon one would be dark blue, har har!). Wouldn't that be geeky and annoying?

S I love You

2007-05-15T21:16:00.000-04:00

I found this orange sticky note on the floor of the store where I work today. I don't think it belongs to any of my fellow employees, as none of their names begin with S... I like the stylized heavy metalesque "S"-- it adds a certain charm. The fact that the "You" is capitalized makes you know that the writer of this note really meant the words he or she jotted down in pencil.

P

2007-05-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

I found this bright yellow foam P on the ground on the way to the train the other morning. It's nicely textured on one side; it looks like it may be from some child's puzzle or some other toy. Hah! This kid will never learn how to P! (hehehe). I like how the P is yellow. How very fitting!

Test Tubes

2007-04-30T00:46:00.000-04:00

I found this Ziplock bag of centrifuge tubes in front of my apartment building when I lived in Allston. I thought it was an odd thing to be lying around. The bag contains one cryo-marker, 2 dry-erase markers (red and green), 2 centrifuge tubes, 2 ... oh crap, i can't remember what they're called-- test tubes of some sort, and a bunch of small sample tubes. The sticky note on it says:

017-07-vx1
CORJ 44
04/09/2005

What's it all for? I have no idea. Everything was completely unused and unlabelled. I used to work in a lab, but I still can't imagine why someone would take this stuff home! Unless, of course, they're a freak like me who really likes lab equipment. This isn't even the cool stuff, though. Since it's Allston, I thought maybe it was for a drug lab. However this stuff is all plastic; it wouldn't make very good cooking equipment.

<-- there's all the stuff laid out.

This is the note on the bag -->

A Weekend In the Life of Jacob

2007-04-22T23:35:00.000-04:00

Jacob E. lives a very busy life, and seems to be very organized. I mean, he types out his to-do lists (albeit on extremely colorful paper) and even puts his name at the top (the JACOB is not part of the paper's design). I often wonder what life would be like to be this organized. He seems to even schedule his social calls!

Knave of Smokes

2007-04-22T23:31:00.000-04:00

Whoever owned this ashtray decided it was too cool to trash, yet too lame to keep. It was sitting outside the dumpster on the ground behind my apartment in Allston for a few days until someone moved it to the landing of the back stairs where it stayed for a few weeks. I picked it up even though I don't smoke, figuring I could find some use for this wonderful object that was "Made in Japan." It's interestingly made-- it's completely hollow. It was obviously molded, as there are chunks that are stuck to the side, and you can see the seams, but it's made from very hard porcelain. I wonder if it came in a set of all the card suits, or if there's something special about spades?

Adult Birthday

2007-04-22T23:26:00.000-04:00

I had called this photo "adultbirthday.jpg", but Blogger wouldn't let me upload it. Perhaps they thought it was going to contain risqué imagery... Don't you think if I was going to upload nekkid pitchurs, I'd be smart enough to call them something else? Anyway, I found this wee sticky note on the floor of the store I was working in in Natick, MA. I thought it was amusingly cryptic. I think it originally was on the greeting card rack, meant to denote the particular subcategory. I could be wrong...

Your Tax Dollars At Work

2007-04-18T00:41:00.000-04:00

I, for one, am glad that Social Security workers at least have good taste in music. I found this sticky note on the floor of the music store where I work today. That particular Ladytron song is on the CD The Witching Hour, which is their latest one. Being the music store dork that I am, I recognized it immediately (I'm also a giant Ladytron fan). I hope the government worker who dropped this CD found what he or she was looking for; it wouldn't be too hard as we carry that CD, and it's pretty much always in stock.

Cootie Catcher

2007-04-11T00:58:00.000-04:00

When I was in elementary school, we called them "fortune tellers." Others inform me that the actual scientific name for them is "cootie catcher." Whatever the name, I found this one on my way to the train the other morning. The maker of this, however, never filled in anything beyond coloring the front (a nice touch, I usually just wrote in colors) and adding numbers. Bound by the lack of colored pencils, I wonder what he or she called the color in the upper right hand corner? Blue-Violet?

Mini Fake Grasshopper

2007-04-05T00:22:00.000-04:00

Walk to train carefully, grasshopper! Today was a major score on my way to work. I found this little plastic grasshopper on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese-owned Thistle and Shamrock convenience store. It's very small (see quarter for scale), but the underside is impressively detailed (well, sort of).

Wash #3

2007-04-05T00:19:00.000-04:00

I found this note on a seat of the Red Line train when I was on my way to work. I stared at it and read it over and over, but I still have absolutely no idea what it's about. Apparently #3 is going to be pretty clean, though, as it gets washed 3 times.

I'm rich, Beeyotch!

2007-04-04T23:42:00.000-04:00

I found Ten Thousand dollars today on my way to the train! A couple of weeks ago I found this poker chip. Apparently the red ones are normally worth $5. So, I'm $10,005 richer just from my morning commute! Ah yes, the Game of Life. I always hated that game--it seemed kind of stupid that whoever had the most money in the end wins. I mean, we all die, don't we? That's why I made up my own edition in high school, called either "Death" or "Get a Life." I never decided on a name, but in this game you get sex changes, lose kids in accidents (you can only gain kids in Milton Bradley's world), and in the end everyone dies. Basically nobody wins the game, you just play it for kicks (kind of like real life).

Anyway, back to the subject-- the design of this money is pretty grim. I mean, come on--the "10,000" fading into the bottom? It looks like some reject printing from a former Soviet Union satellite. I had a 10,000 whatever (dinar?) note from the former Yugoslavia sometime in the early 90s when I was there. I'd scan it to show you what I'm talking about, except some douchebag broke into my apartment last year and stole all my completely worthless foreign money, much of it from countries that no longer exist.

Here's a bank note from Latvia -- this is sort of what I'm talking about:

Cell phones are SO COOL!

2007-04-02T22:59:00.000-04:00

Whenever I get lonely, I just click open my Lizzie McGuire talking phone, and Lizzie says, "MMmmphhhhgp ppmmmmmggphh mmm phhffnsd." A few short months ago, she would say, "you're SUCH a great friend!" and my heart would warm up and I would realize how much I am uh, friended in this world or something.

Alas, Lizzie's batteries are running down, causing the fairy-like jingling noises her phone makes when you open it to go off at random times. They also interrupt themselves to start over, so it sounds kind of like early 80s rap music when were just getting into skratching and sampling. It goes

jingle jingJingJingJingJing jingle JingJingJingle

for a while and then stops for a couple of days. Today, however, you can make out Lizzie's voice as she says touching things like "K.I.T.-- you know, 'keep in touch, OK?' bye." as well as philosophical ponderers like, "cell phones are SO COOL." However, when you punch the number buttons, instead of a cheery beeping, they make the sound of a tape deck just after someone has pulled the plug. On the tape whose plug was pulled was a recording of a dying goose.

Since this is a "camera" phone, you can "take pictures" with it. This means that when you push the big round button in the middle, it makes a camera shutter clicking noise, and the "flash" on the front (see picture, left) is supposed to flash. Alas, there will be no dirty fake-photos looking up women's skirts on the subway today, as the battery is dying.

My favorite feature of this phone is the fake battery pack (see picture, right). Doesn't it look like you should be able to open up the back and take out the battery by pressing down on the tab near the top? PSYCH! That's just there to *look* like a real cell phone's battery pack. The real battery is stored in a chamber beneath that panel; one that you need a tiny phillips-head screwdriver to open. Such attention to detail!

I stuck this phone in the front pocket of my purse after I found it lying face down in a muddy patch of ground in Allston last summer, and haven't remembered to remove it until now. Several times my real cell phone has rung (kept in an identical pocket next to the LizziePhone bearing one) and I have answered Lizzie's phone by accident. I kind of wish I had a hot pink and poison green cell phone. Well, I'm SUCH a good friend to Lizzie, maybe she'll give me one for my birthday, because after all, cell phones are SO COOL!

20th Century Photo

2007-04-02T21:18:00.000-04:00

Alicia Paul is learning a valuable lesson about art-- what Jane Tuckerman's email address is. OK, she's learning that Ed Weston hung out with "Diago" Rivera and Ansel Adams.

I think this is probably some notes from a photography class. Did Alicia lose interest before she got to Ansel Adams or Imogen Cunningham, or did she already know enough about them? I hope Alicia wrote down Jane Tuckerman's email address elsewhere, though!

Found on the ground in Central Square

Magnet Shape Choice

2007-03-12T22:52:00.000-04:00

In our free country, we are lucky to have the freedom of choice. This freedom extends to the choosing of magnet shapes. Some Communist was trying to take away that freedom by forcing (albeit politely) the recipient of this note to take the round one. However, this country is still so great that the note-getter was able to choose a magnet shape of his heart's desire for the first one, I presume. This is a Post-It I found stuck to the stairs leading to the Outbound Red Line in Downtown Crossing T station today.

No Birds

2007-03-12T22:49:00.000-04:00

We re-arranged the display fixtures in the store where I work yesterday. One of my co-workers found this picture underneath one of the fixtures we moved. It's written in black ballpoint pen on cash register tape. Nobody could figure out who the artist is, or what he or she has against birds.

Flakiness is Everywhere!

2007-03-12T22:46:00.000-04:00

I was really psyched when I found this purple Post-It note stuck to the sidewalk in Downtown Crossing the other day. I had written a similar note the night before (even in black Sharpie!) and stuck it to my door where I would be sure to see it every morning on my way out of the house. I hope the writer of this note remembered his or her necessities that morning!

Beacon Drain Clogged

2007-03-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

Is this a note a helpful landlord scribbled to remember which tenants needed a repairman? Is it a note designed to warn fellow Jehovah's Witnesses of perils in their door-to-door rounds? We may never know. Found on the sidewalk near Porter Square in Cambridge a few weeks ago.

Deconstruction Zone

2007-03-06T21:42:00.000-05:00

This is a recent find; I picked it up outside Bruegger's Bagels across from the Porter Square T stop last week. Finding this is what prompted me to get off my butt and start this blog!

This poem was written on the back of a blank invoice form from ColorWorks Painting and Decorating stores that was haphazardly folded into quarters. The author seems to dislike apostrophes.

The text is as follows:

DECONSTRUCTION ZONE

THE TOLLS I PAY
Stay in the lines
theyre not people
theyre just traffic
I dont know
Ill just go

Ill leave halfway
through so the ending
doesnt ruin it for me

Trash Picking is Number 1!

2007-03-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

I found this number one on the sidewalk in Ithaca, NY a number of years ago. I had incorporated it in a mobile, but it has long since fallen apart. I'm still looking for something cool to do with this small red one.

Rusty Metal bolt

2007-03-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

I like rusty metal things. I found this in Allston, where one usually finds broken beer bottles and syringes and the like. I have no idea what it is from; maybe from the train yard? I found it by the train yard in Lower Allston. You are probably not very excited by this bolt, but I like it a lot.

Swimming Medal

2007-03-06T20:48:00.000-05:00

I found this swimming medal on the ground when I was in elementary school. I kept it in my "treasure box" with other things that could double as either pirate booty, hidden chests of riches belonging to rightful kings of the land, or other imaginary worlds that have need for lost treasure. I liked the laurel wreath on the back; it looked very Greek and stately to me.

Life is Simple

2007-03-06T20:41:00.000-05:00

Orlando Castillo wrote this touching letter to someone who discarded on the sidewalk in Allston. Although she (I presume it's a she, but you never know) didn't "burn it" as the letter instructed, she obviously didn't find this heartfelt confession from a Dartmouth Alum as touching as I did, even though he has a propensity to drive while drunk. I only have pages 3 and 5, I can only guess what the rest of the letter said.

Look, medieval coffin nails!

2007-03-05T19:40:00.000-05:00

In Ireland, graveyards were often used over and over, people being buried on top of each other without rhyme or reason. This was the case in one little churchyard in Kinfenora, Co. Clare. There had been a recent burial, and the archaeologist who was leading my group around stooped down to examine the freshly dug dirt. "Look, medieval coffin nails!" he said, and held one up. I kept 2 as a souvenir. The chunks at the top of this picture once looked like the bottom nail; in the 9 years I've had these, they have crumbled to bits.

End of the Christmas Party

2007-03-05T19:32:00.000-05:00

There are only a few revelers left at this Christmas Party, and drunkenness is probably what's inspiring the last few stragglers to sing karaoke... Judging from the look on the one dude's face, singing probably isn't this person's main talent. The photographer who captured this moment wasn't the only one; I wonder what the lady with the white hat's picture looks like? Also, I like the 3 Stooges poster in the background. I found this picture on Brighton Ave. in Allston one night in January 2007.

2007-03-05T19:27:00.000-05:00

Andy is a Safe Driver. Unfortunately, he is also a forgetful driver. So forgetful in fact, he managed to lose his name tag in the snow somewhere in Oswego, NY in the winter of 1994/1995. Hell, it could have been spring or autumn-- Oswego gets snow pretty much 8 months out of the year.

I always hoped that Andy was a Manager In Training or some other such thing, and not that he had gone to MIT and this was now his reward.

Allston Squiggle

2007-03-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

This Polaroid was on the sidewalk in Allston sometime in 2006. I can't tell what the picture is supposed to be of, but I really like the light squiggles and the way it came out.

Croagh Patrick Rock

2007-03-04T20:58:00.000-05:00

Croagh Patrick is Ireland's holy mountain. It is said that St. Patrick fasted for 40 days on its summit, and that it was from there that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. For millennia, pilgrims have climbed this mountain, often with barefeet, or on their knees (these practices are discouraged, though).

I found this rock on one trip climbing the mountain (climb is an extreme word, it's more like a brisk upward hike). You can't tell too well from the picture, but it has a cross on it where two veins of quartz (?) intersect at right angles. You can only see the cross when this stone is wet. As I was descending the mountain, it had begun to sprinkle, and I noticed this stone.

I'm probably the least religious person on the planet, though I do have a healthy amount of superstition. I've kept this as my lucky rock ever since I found it (in the mid-90s sometime).

Redhead with Nosering

2007-03-04T20:53:00.000-05:00

I can't remember where I found this Polaroid; I think it was in Medford. It's very blurry, but the girl pictured seems really contemplative. Is it even a girl? Now that I'm looking at it, it could be a boy...

Headless Action Figures

2007-03-04T20:49:00.000-05:00

Last year I walked or rode my bike to work every day the same way. The walk took me past a church that is known for youth outreach programs. They have punk shows in the basement and festivals for all sorts of diverse peoples I didn't even know had a significant presence in Allston (like the recent Hmong Weekend). On two separate occasions, a few months apart I found these headless toys. I thought the genie guy was Jafaar from Disney's Aladdin, but a co-worker corrected me; it's a Yu-Gi-Oh guy. I'm not sure who the dog is.

Someone on that street must enjoy ripping the heads off action figures!

Girls on Vacation

2007-03-04T20:13:00.000-05:00

My roommate found these pictures of this little girl and her friend. I'm not sure where the picture is taken, or what exactly is going on. The two girls look like they're having lots of fun, though!

Army Surplus earring

2007-03-04T20:02:00.000-05:00

I just found this; I had no idea that I still had it. I found it in the pocket of a jacket I bought at an army surplus store when I was about 15 (ca. 1987). It just turned up again in the bottom of my hardware drawer. Go figure! The jacket is long gone, but the earring remains.

I was always intrigued by this really ugly, cheap earring. The "diamonds" are really bad imitations in plastic, and the gold colored sheen on the metal was wearing off in many places. Was it part of a pair that a soldier bought for his wife/girlfriend? Was it leftover from a night on the town? Was it the incriminating evidence from a cross-dresser?

Trash, Trash, Trash!

2007-03-04T16:15:00.000-05:00

I have a habit of picking shit off the street. Here is the continuing saga all the crap I've found over the years ...