The Astounding Mr. Goodner's Amazing Electric Widgets - Found Writings

Found Writings 7: All you can eat

David Goodner — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:33:35 GMT

I haven't done one of these in a while. I have some of them laying around. This one comes courtesy of my friend (and landlady) Kate. I've had it for months now, but been too lazy to scan it.

The original document is a flyer from a Chinese place, and a recipt stuck in the top. I'm not sure why it was written that way.

Found Writings 6: Little Orange Square

David Goodner — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:30:56 GMT

Today's Found Writing is on a post-it note. That doesn't really carry to a scan, but I want you to know it was a pain to bring home because it stuck to stuff in my wallet.

Incidentally, I find it amusing that evidentally a lot of people get to my blog via google image search for some variant of "Tattoo Writing" (and even more will, now). I wonder if someone out there somewhere has a grocery list tattooed on his arm.

This looks a lot like one of my grocery lists - short, and fairly random. I bet the person who owned this post-it note lives close to the store.

Unlike me, he or she is probably in a relationship, since the list originally held two kinds of shampoo. (But then again, it's crossed off. Maybe they broke up. I wonder which one got to keep the cat)

Found Writings 5: Glad they remembered the dog

David Goodner — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 18:49:52 GMT

I found this one last night at Wal-mart, where, incidentally, 5-shelf bookshelves are on sale for $29.95. Sometimes they'll get down as low as 25 or so, but I think I'm gonna go buy some today.

(The above should not be considred an endorsement of Wal-mart)

Found Writings 4: Congratulations Are Likely In Order

David Goodner — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 01:04:54 GMT

On my last trip to the grocery store, I found this little jewel. Assuming it means what I think it means, it's pretty cool.

Found Writings 3: Our first reader submission

David Goodner — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:49:12 GMT

Today's Found Writing comes courtesy of avid reader Blue Canary. (doesn't "Avid Reader Blue Canary" sound like a good title for a manga?)

I can't even read most of that. I'm not quite sure what language it's in.

If you'd like to win eternal fame by sending me a Found Writing, well... you probably won't, but feel free to send it anyway. I'm not too picky about the file format, but once I compress it it's going to come out as a jpg. Use the email link on the blog, and it'd probably be smart if you prefaced the subject line with [electric widgets] so I can easily sort them out from my tons of regular mail. (Well, not tons, but at least pounds)

Found Writings 2: I wonder if she won

David Goodner — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:37:03 GMT

Here's another grocery list. The smudged bits were people's names. I gather that one person was shopping for some other people. She wrote on both sides.

Besides burning with curiosity over whether or not the bingo sampler paid off, I wonder what blue sugar is. Is it some kind of confectioner's thing?

Found Writings 1: It's "Guacamole"

David Goodner — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:59:15 GMT

Hi. It's been a while for my poor, neglected blog. I have a lot going on lately that doesn't lend itself to giving me time to make up new blog content. Fortunately, you, the discriminating reader, are here to help. At least those of you who leave your grocery lists in the cart when you go to the grocery store.

Every so often, I find one, and now, instead of ignoring them or throwing them away like a sane person, I have decided to keep them, scan them, and share them with you. I'm sure you're fascinated.

The way this is going to work is that when I find lists, I'll scan them, hide anything that would identify a specific person (like addresses and phone numbers), and post them here. If one of my thousands (okay 7. Not 7000, just 7) of loyal readers finds a list they'd like to see immortalized, I have an email link on the blog page. Scan it at 200 dpi or so, save it as a PNG, and mail that puppy to me.

I'll also consider other forms of found writing. The main criteria are that the writing be hand-written, brief, and not TOO personal. I probably won't post someone's love-letter, but I might post an interesting greeting card. My favorites, though, are lists like to-do lists, grocery lists, and other fairly obscure things.

So, without further ado, here's the first one.

There will be more as soon as I find some. Of course, NOW, everyone will start cleaning up their grocery carts. Which is a victory in itself, really.