Rob Walker's Blog
December 16, 2009
Object No. TK of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Mimi Lipson, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
She's Jewish, so why does she insist on giving me Christmas gifts? For that matter, why is she giving me a hippie bear Christmas tree ornament? I'm not a hippie. She's certainly not a hippie. There is no hippie of our mutual acquaintance to whom this could be a fond or winking allusion. But it's a long...
December 15, 2009
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Barbara Bogaev, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
He's close to death, but he's giving my mom a look as if he's about to leap over the hospital bed rail and throttle her. I think, this is going to be his last earthly act, he's going to strangle his wife of 55 years in front of his whole family, as we look on, holding plastic cups of ice chips and getting stiff in our middle-aged children's...
December 14, 2009
Object No. TK of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Wayne Koestenbaum, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
Gloria Swanson owned a duck nutcracker. Guests, including Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone, cracked nuts at Gloria's cocktail parties.
After Gloria died, John Travolta inherited the contraption. He brought it out as a conversation piece when Roland Barthes came calling.
Then the duck nutcracker fell out of favor.
I found it at a...
December 13, 2009
We've discussed the intrinsic appeal of some Significant Objects – but what about those objects that lacked such appeal? Things inexplicable, but not in a way that doesn't necessarily make you want to know more. Sometimes objects like the now-notorious Scottish Doll did not appeal to our writers, and were not chosen for Significance-making. But in a few cases, we actually auctioned objects that (to me at leas) bordered on trash. Or outright repulsiveness.
Original price: $4
For instance: the...
December 11, 2009
Object No. 9 of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Lydia Millet, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
I've always wanted to be good at a bar game. Pool would be my first choice, but no hope there. Darts was an option, once, but the first time I tried to get real instruction, in a pub in a dreary English town called Wokingham, I bloodied the ear of a man. It was the ear of the man I was seeing at the time, a small-time drug dealer...
I don't believe we ever formally noted that the recent Hammer Bottle Opener + Alexander Chapman Story was our first Significant Object by one of the finalists from our earlier contest with Slate. (The auction ended yesterday, and it went for an impressive $40.06.) We have a few more in the works, and we're really pleased about that. As much as we enjoy publishing writers whose work we already know and love, we also enjoy discovering voices that are new to us, and (probably) to you.
Getting...
December 10, 2009
Object No. 8 of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Douglas Wolk, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
…In the final year of his career, however, Sanangelo became increasingly unreliable and obsessed with challenging both his listeners and himself, feeling that his work had become "too easy." He made it a point of pride to never miss a gig, but his audiences (and the pickup musicians who fluttered in and out of the band after Conroy ...
Significant
Just a quick note to observe the completion of the first auction of Significant Objects Volume 2, which actually happened on Tuesday: The Rabbit Candle + Story by Neil LaBute, went for $112.50 (original price $3). An auspicious beginning! Please keep the bids coming and keep helping us spread the word. As you know, proceeds from the 50-object Volume Two will be gathered up into a lump sum and given to 826 National. We want an impressive lump sum!
Get a Significant Object story by...
December 9, 2009
Object No. 7 of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Bob Powers, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
I bought this chrome turtle from the first girl I ever loved, five years after I'd stopped. She was having a yard sale. I didn't know it was her yard. I just caught a glimpse from across the street and saw there were sweaters, so I decided to check it out.
The clothes were all women's. I would have kept walking, except I knew I'd seen ...
December 8, 2009
Object No. 6 of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Sarah Manguso, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
When the old lady died, my brothers and I were told to take away everything that was left.
The knickknack shelf was dusty. The porcelain things were gone, and so was the tiny violin. There were some pastel-glazed animals, a jar of flowers, a clay thimble, and other things of no value. I looked at the little paper man, his paper...
