I read a blog (notimetoclean.wordpress.com) about cleaning and organizing junk drawers. Inspired, when I got to work on Monday, I opened the desk drawer that normally stays closed, except when I open it to throw more stuff in there.
Wow!
It’s funny how many things a desk drawer can hold. I felt like a fedora topped Indiana Jones going through that desk drawer. Here’s some of what I discovered in said drawer, in order, from the front to the back (or from latest additions to earliest)
Four packets of N’Joy Brand Crushed Red Pepper. One intact, the other opened and half full. No expiration date found.
One City of Detroit People Mover token.
One Tim McCormick (1980 Clarkston High School grad) Skybox trading card from 1992. He was playing for the New York Knickerbockers.
Twenty pennies (two wheaties)
One dime
Two nickels (1946, 1954)
One nail clipper (and a mess of clipped finger nails)
One quarter used tube of Close-Up Freshening Red Gel toothpaste. It cleans, whitens and Freshens! On the back, there was a copyright year of 2004.
A Monday, January 24, 2011 Fantasy 5 lotto ticket.
One metal spoon
One toothbrush
Another nickel (1941)
Half a dozen que-tip cleaners
One green-faced Eddie Bauer wrist watch with broken band. Not working.
One black, leather wallet (empty, no greenbacks)
One plastic fork
One plastic wrapped butterscotch candy.
One inflatable mattress, threaded plug.
Two King Par golf tees
Three paper currencies from The Japanese Government (one centavo, ten centavos and fifty centavos). These, I believe were my dad’s, when he was stationed in Korea, in 1955. When and why I brought them to work, I have no idea.
A clipped comic strip called Pickles, by Brain Crane, dated 2005.
Four broken ‘reader? glasses of various (fashionable) ‘style.?
Two more plastic forks, one plastic knife
One Palm VII PDA, in a black, ‘Rhino-Skin? case
One nearly empty tube of Maximum Strength Orajel.
One picture of me dressed as Clark Kent, dated Halloween, October 1989.
A dozen more losing lottery tickets dating back to 2008.
Various receipts, paper clips, coins, business cards, paper scraps with telephone numbers, rubber bands, keys, staples, pens, pencils and, I stopped rummaging about there.
Then reached down to the bottom left drawer. Another, Wow!
Jackpot! Daily planner calendars of various sizes dating back to 1989. On May 17, I interviewed Oxford’s Intha Hubble for her 90th birthday (well, I think it was 90, I remember doing the interview.) That was at 3 p.m.
To the right, in another drawer, a phone number gizmo (the List Finder, Model A) from 1985. Flipping through it I see a lot of names of people who are now taking the long, dirt nap. Bummer.
The whole idea about the blog was to clean out desk drawers, top dresser drawers, kitchen junk drawers — go through these collections, clean, purge and organize.
I ended my trip down memory lane, put away my fedora, closed the drawers. The adventure stopped when I knew I needed to wash my hands and get a tetanus shot. I think I will revisit the desk’s drawers in another decade or so. Maybe.
From Ye Ol? Mail Bag
A few weeks ago I opined on Civil Discourse (or lack there of in today’s society). While I thought for sure a high school teacher would have responded, none did. A dude named Randy, did take the time. Said, he:
‘When you have logic on your side, argue logic; when you have morals on your side, argue morals; when you have science on your side, argue science; when you have facts on your side, argue facts. When you have none of these on your side, shout loudly, pettifog the issue, and call your opponent bad names.
‘The rule for civil discourse?
‘If all you have on your side is emotion, shut up. You are incapable of civil discourse. Those of us who wish to engage in civil discourse will appreciate your silence. That will give us the opportunity to clearly hear all sides.
‘What’s my point? As long as screaming, name-calling, and vocal rage abound in an effort to shout down the opposition, no civil discourse can be heard above the din. I agree with you, civil discourse, for now, is dead. I doubt if it can be revived any time soon. Hence, we have regressed to the Socratic era where Sophists ruled the forum. Liberals call themselves ‘Progressives.? I would think, rather, that they are ‘Regressives.??