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Famous lost words: Finding art (and joy) in scraps of memory

Here’s a fun article by Mackenzie Dawson in today’s New York Post:

Book inscriptions, grocery lists, Post-it notes — one man’s trash is truly another man’s treasure.

Particularly if that man’s trash is really weird.

For example, a dated photo that features an older woman standing proudly next to a Christmas tree – which is topped with an enormous, jeweled armadillo.

Or a shopping list that includes “Kid hair de-tangler, ibuprofen, Fibre-all, Sensodyne, Prozac.”

Or a note that says “BIND ME, please! And bring COOKIES!”

It begs the question: What happens if the person brings the wrong kind of cookies — will binding not occur? (Or will they, perhaps, be bound as punishment?) When will the cookies be eaten: before, after or during?

It’s a lot for a complete stranger to ponder.

Bill Keaggy, the founder of Grocerylists.org, was leaving a grocery store one day when a sort of “silly serendipity” struck: he found a grocery list on a yellow Post-it note. The list itself was nothing special, but much like Raviv, Keaggy found himself fixating on the person it belonged to.