All items left untouched, found near Lake Mendota. All photographed in the early morning — 5:50, 6:15, and 6:31.
৩১ আগস্ট, ২০২৫
Found — August 29, August 30, August 31.
All items left untouched, found near Lake Mendota. All photographed in the early morning — 5:50, 6:15, and 6:31.
পোস্টগুলি
৪১টি মন্তব্য:
It bothers me that we'll never know what the other die read.
Hidden gems. Of Dane County.
In 1,000 years the archaeology students at UW Madison will read this blog post and thank you. It'll be their lucky day to know the dates and context of these artifacts. No snake eyes for them, unless a snake happens to be buried in the same layer of sediment.
You found the Harris campaign platform in its entirety. She's been looking for that.
A little bit of a James Comey vibe there....
A few years ago, a friend started sending me pictures of his pet peeve: casually discarded plastic toothpick-flossers showing up on sidewalks and in parking lots. Once he did, I started noticing them everywhere. The only thing more prevalent appears to be discarded nip bottles.
Joy joy joy joy joy joy. While the left destroy our way of life - JOY!
hat tip to Iman. Joy!
This post evokes the classic post "Hipster littering."
These are things I've found on our sunrise journeys. Things Meade has found: 1. $111 cash, 2. wedding band.
Unlike Meade, I did not inform the police of my finds.
Make up a story around how these three items happened to end up on the ground in the same vicinity. Extra credit for tying Kamala Harris into the ‘Joy’ item.
In the heart of a bustling urban park on a crisp autumn afternoon, a chain of unlikely events brought together three disparate items on the gravel path, creating a tableau that seemed almost poetic in its randomness.
It began with Marcus, a street magician with a flair for the dramatic, who was practicing his act for an upcoming gig at a local fundraiser. He specialized in illusions that blended everyday objects with a touch of whimsy. In his pocket, he carried a white die attached to a thin chain—his “luck charm” for deciding which trick to perform next. During a particularly enthusiastic flourish, he rolled it to “consult fate,” but a gust of wind caught it mid-bounce, sending it skittering across the pebbles until it settled face-up on a 1, mocking his ambitions.
Not far away, Lila, a young event planner, was rushing to set up decorations for a nearby pop-up art fair. She had a bag full of artificial silk flowers, sourced from a craft store to add pops of color to the booths. As she hurried along, juggling her phone and a coffee, one pink bloom with a vibrant yellow center—meant to evoke a cheerful peony—slipped from the overstuffed bag. It fluttered to the ground like a discarded dream, its petals slightly frayed from the fall.
The final piece of the puzzle involved Theo, a fervent political volunteer who had just come from canvassing for Kamala Harris’s ongoing advocacy work. Kamala’s 2024 presidential campaign had famously centered on “joy” as a rallying cry—her speeches often invoking it as a antidote to division, with lines like “We fight with joy” becoming viral soundbites. Theo, inspired, carried a small, travel-sized packet of Joy dish soap (the kind with the classic blue-and-white striped design and pink lettering) as a tongue-in-cheek prop during door-knocking sessions. “See? Kamala’s bringing the joy—and I’m here to clean up the mess of the old politics!” he’d quip to amused voters. But in his zeal, as he bent down to tie his shoe near the path, the packet tumbled out of his jacket pocket, landing with a soft thud beside the die and the flower.
The three items lay there, inches apart: the die symbolizing chance, the flower a nod to fleeting beauty, and the Joy packet a subtle echo of Kamala’s optimistic ethos. Passersby stepped around them, oblivious to the mini-drama, until a curious blogger snapped photos, immortalizing their serendipitous convergence as a metaphor for life’s unpredictable collisions.
-Grok
Grok walked into a bar and tried to tell a Stephen King story. The bartender said, “Sorry, pal, but your ‘It’ is more like ‘It Ain’t’—next time, leave the story telling to the pros!”
I thought the Joy packet was from a condom. Still fits the "optimistic ethos" spewed by Grok.
That is not random. That is obviously art.
Enigma said...
“In 1,000 years the archaeology students at UW Madison will read this blog post and thank you. It'll be their lucky day to know the dates and context of these artifacts.”
I’m thinking a companion book to Motel of the Mysteries” is in order.
The kids had their summer "day camp" in the park near where I live. Every day somebody lost something. Single shoes often found. But those are baby shoes. I doubt any of the campers came home with only one shoe on.
Sometimes I'd pick up something off the sidewalk and put it on a post or hydrant or telephone pole or transformer box or driveway marker, but nobody ever came back for their lost items.
Prof: You maybe interested in the story in WashPost that had Madison as a best college town. You have traveled many states and are almost retired. Do you find Madison as a best town for retirement? If you could, what would your other best choices? Am thinking of giving up my political consultancy and settle down somewhere. Thanks!!!!
Lucky day. I play my mom's once-a-week lottery numbers once a year on her birthday. So I didn't play them today. I got four in order and the powerball.
She must be pissed at me about something, in heaven.
Mr. Meade - please see me after class…
Norm: "It's just a still photograph"
LOL!
My youngest daughter and I do this. If she sees something on the ground that looks interesting she'll take a picture and send it to me and I'll do the same for her.
Professor Whiskeybum?
Am I in some kind of trouble?
Again.
Tina, if I understand correctly you won $50K. Woo hoo!
No, I play doubles. It would have been much more, though I'm no expert. Greyhound racing is my betting sport.
A haiku:
Joy, joy, joy, joy, joy!
Wilting flower fall, so sad
Campaign, die, die, die
A litterbug garden is avant-garde in progressive art gazing inward.
I hope the lawyers who read this will explain how I am wrong when I explain why I wouldn’t turn in found money to the police: as I understand it you are required to turn in found property to the police and if no one claims it after a specified period of time you can claim it. So far, so good. However, if the cash is related to drug trafficking or terrorism the government gets to keep it unless you can prove that the money is not related to those activities. Since there is no way to prove the negative the government gets to keep the money simply by making the claim. I don’t agree that the government claim is superior to mine so if I did find money I wouldn’t be likely to turn it over.
And I didn't buy the ticket. Very, very sadly.
Mongo, in my case, I turned in the money and the ring to the police. If no one claims the cash within 90 days, I get to legally keep it — no theft by finding. I don’t want the ring anyway and I hope the rightful owner contacts the University Police Department, identifies it based on the engraving inside the band. Hint: it’s a specific date from the last century.
The flower could be connected to the campaign as well(symbolically upside down):
https://www.amazon.com/107-Days-Kamala-Harris-T-Shirt/dp/B0FKNHQ5ZK
My mom - actually my little brother, as a small child - once found a gold watch outside the tennis court where Mom was taking a tennis lesson while we three played. After consultation with a lawyer friend, my mom - as memory serves - advertised in the local paper for 30 days and, with no response, kept the watch. She had it banded for a man and have it to my brother for his high school graduation.
This was in Iowa in the mid-1970s.
I've never found anything valuable!
I mean, except my husband.
Who has proven to be quite the windfall in every way!
Just saw the haiku, perfect.
The lone die means someone failed a saving throw, and the die all that is left…
"In both land and aquatic ecosystems, the role played by detritus is too large to ignore."
-- Wikipedia
Is the third photo some sad, withered remnant of Kamala's "Joy" campaign?
Iconic, if so.
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