A while ago I found this post-it note on my desk. Here’s the list of items I had written down:
- Skyrim
- pie
- Star Wars
- Firefly
- Star Trek
- Nancy Pelosi
- tax brackets
- Elsevier sucks
- Marvel
- Gene Kelly
- tap dance
- Drama Book Shop
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
What…on Earth. That is my question for you. What is this list? It’s not things I like. While I love Gene Kelly (obviously), Firefly, and pie, I am kind of lukewarm on Star Wars and have no particular opinion on Drama Book Shop. I guess I’m in favor of tax brackets. But how is “Elsevier sucks” on this list? That’s not even a thing! It’s a sentence!
So. What on Earth? Put your guesses in the comments, please.
Photo: Helen Fields, obviously
It’s a list of things that were momentarily hot on Twitter…?
It’s not possible blog posts, I’m sure it’s not. It’s maybe action items of some sort?
I super don’t care what’s hot on twitter, so it’s not that. Correct, it’s not a list of blog posts – these don’t sound like LWONs. A to-do list makes sense, but…for what? I mean, Nancy Pelosi *and* Star Trek?
It’s one of those memory devices. When you recall this list that you wrote down, you will also remember the really important things that attach to each item on the list. See how well this works?
Things that you wanted to do/watch/learn about during the pandemic? But yeah, Elsevier’s suckiness doesn’t seem like it belongs.
I don’t know you, but that looks like one long list of items you were going to use in an essay and then totally forgot what it was about.
Oh, goodness, Ben, that is exactly what it looks like. Do I have to write the essay now? Ugh. (Lila – no, the list predates the pandemic.)
I reckon it is possible that, on Friday, 12/13/19, you were pondering 13 random thoughts that crossed your mind at 12:13pm, wrote them on a post-it, and then got sidetracked when you looked down and realized you were barefoot and, when you decided to put on some footwear, you forgot the likely excellent reason those random thoughts were bedecking your mind.
Our guess is that you were brainstorming for gift ideas for a friend. Maybe it’s that person’s likes and dislikes and topics of curiosity? I mean, don’t even THINK about getting an Elsevier product for this person!
Related, sounds like a list of topics you could have touched on during a fun, wide-ranging dinner conversation.
Every month I discover post it notes like this, that haunt me too. People to write letters to. Things to look up on Wikipedia. Things to order. Things to send to my friends. Poems to write. Things to fact check. Letters to write to the editor. Rants to write. Jokes to remember. Art to track down.
Your note is pretty well-inscribed. What really confounds me is my often illegible script, that is impossible to make sense of, short of some sort of a transcendent, intuitive moment.
You certainly are not alone. It’s always good to find something new about ourselves to laugh about.
Do the first letters of the items form a password that you needed write down to remember it but also needed to disguise as a list so no one would guess it was a password?
@Penny: I sure hope not! If so…here’s my password, everybody!