The Box of Shame, Revisited
First, here is a great description from a not entirely satisfying mystery (The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson). "For the Bronco get-together, she wore a chartreuse knit sweater and skirt trimmed with fur in dots and dashes, as if the minks had been begging for help in Morse code."
I often get brochures in the mail or clip a magazine article that I want to look at, but not with any particular urgency. I put those in a box in the study nook that I refer to as "the box of shame." The shameful part is how long it takes me to actually deal with any of it.
But every now and then I do go through it, usually when it is about to overflow. Much of it is easy enough to deal with. The brochures get read and tossed or filed, the stacks of puzzles either get solved or return to the box, the coupons that expired two or more years ago get thrown out. Inevitably, I also end up finding mysterious, indecipherable notes to myself.
In November 2008, I wrote the word "Holdaway" on a calendar page. It must have been important, since I outlined it with the same sort of box I outlined the word "TEA" with. The latter was a reference to my need to bring a fresh supply of tea to the office. I just googled "holdaway" and it seems to be a name (or, possibly, a device having to do with mooring the boat I don't have). I have no idea why I wrote this down. Nor do I understand why I wrote "No Hawaii" on the back of that page. I do, alas, understand the note that "1 crapton = 6 buttloads."
In some cases, I suspect the problem is my handwriting. (Yes, I got C's in penmanship all through elementary school.) I figured out that one note reads "collective potential of human imagination" but I had to think a lot harder to realize that what looked like "Good for the sheep" is really "Good for the shoes." I would not have figured that out had it not been on the calendar page for Josh Kornbluth's Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews which contained that pun. I cannot explain why I was taking notes at the theatre. Maybe I need to take a class on creating my alter-ego to figure this out. Even having the super powers that would make me need an alter ego won't tell me why I wrote down "black or white or shiny" last March, though I suspect it has something to do with spacecraft or space suits because I was at a NASA workshop that day.
Finally, I would like to believe this item (from October 2008) is the lyrics to a song, but it could very well be a puzzle. In which case, somebody cleverer than I am can solve it.
As I was walking down the lane
From the dead, the living came
6 there were
1 will be
I often get brochures in the mail or clip a magazine article that I want to look at, but not with any particular urgency. I put those in a box in the study nook that I refer to as "the box of shame." The shameful part is how long it takes me to actually deal with any of it.
But every now and then I do go through it, usually when it is about to overflow. Much of it is easy enough to deal with. The brochures get read and tossed or filed, the stacks of puzzles either get solved or return to the box, the coupons that expired two or more years ago get thrown out. Inevitably, I also end up finding mysterious, indecipherable notes to myself.
In November 2008, I wrote the word "Holdaway" on a calendar page. It must have been important, since I outlined it with the same sort of box I outlined the word "TEA" with. The latter was a reference to my need to bring a fresh supply of tea to the office. I just googled "holdaway" and it seems to be a name (or, possibly, a device having to do with mooring the boat I don't have). I have no idea why I wrote this down. Nor do I understand why I wrote "No Hawaii" on the back of that page. I do, alas, understand the note that "1 crapton = 6 buttloads."
In some cases, I suspect the problem is my handwriting. (Yes, I got C's in penmanship all through elementary school.) I figured out that one note reads "collective potential of human imagination" but I had to think a lot harder to realize that what looked like "Good for the sheep" is really "Good for the shoes." I would not have figured that out had it not been on the calendar page for Josh Kornbluth's Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews which contained that pun. I cannot explain why I was taking notes at the theatre. Maybe I need to take a class on creating my alter-ego to figure this out. Even having the super powers that would make me need an alter ego won't tell me why I wrote down "black or white or shiny" last March, though I suspect it has something to do with spacecraft or space suits because I was at a NASA workshop that day.
Finally, I would like to believe this item (from October 2008) is the lyrics to a song, but it could very well be a puzzle. In which case, somebody cleverer than I am can solve it.
As I was walking down the lane
From the dead, the living came
6 there were
1 will be