Rob Walker's Blog, page 47

Missouri Shotglass

Object No. 100 of 100

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Jonathan Lethem, here.]

Listen, friend, forget about the bartender, you could wait all day in this dive, we might as well be invisible over here, I kid you not. Here, let me pour you a drink. No, really, I insist, it's on me. I brought my own. Just swab out the dust and fingerprints with my shirttails, good as new. Love the way it claps down on the bar, gets your glands salivating, doesn't it?

No, after you, I insist. My...

Geisha Bobblehead

Object No. 99 of 100

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Edward Champion, here.]

The resilient ruffians ran away with the geisha's canes just after she refused to perform a classless act. While it was true that the geisha dramatized the occasional lowbrow feat, befitting an object of her status, even she had her standards. She'd wobble her elliptical hips within a studded hula hoop forged from painful tungsten alloy. She'd gorge on great sticks of fire while her blind part-time...

The future (?) of Significant Objects (Part Two)

Yesterday I said we had an idea for Significant Objects Volume 2 — or at least the start of an idea. In a nutshell: What if we had writers invent Significance for a new set of objects, this time with the cumulative proceeds going to charity? I like to think of this as the "selling crap for a cause" strategy.

On the practical side, we still have a number of yard-sale and thrift-store objects that we obtained for the original S.O., but that were not chosen by anyone in that group of writers.

More...

Six Word Contest: The Runners-Up

Thanks again to all who participated in our Six-Word Contest in Conjunction with SmithMag.net. And while I'm at it: Thanks, SmithMag.net!

We published our winner yesterday: Read (and bid!) here.

It was, of course, an excruciating choice. Peruse the 400+ entries here and see what you think. Our runners up (in no specific order) are as follows:

He smoked me, I just smoked.

— Cameron Vest; Reston, Virginia

Old flame. Great rack. Plays game.

— Paul de Denus, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

"Fire ball…….

c...

Bar Mitzvah Bookends

Object No. 98 of 100

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Stacey Levine, here.]

I'm not a collector, but really a purloiner, and there's only a brief backstory to these novelties.

When my second wife died, I sought companionship. So I installed a soda machine in my bedroom — it would be a conversation piece and might make me more attractive to the ladies. I disabled the cash acceptor. I started going for walks to the little square in downtown Orange, and I thought: Why is no one...

Lighter Shaped Like Small Pool Ball

Object No. 97 of 100

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by (Six-Word Story Contest winner) Rob Agredo, here.]

"You lose," she puffed.

True.

Again.

Six-Word winner: Here it comes

We'll be posting the SmithMag/Significant Objects Six Word Contest winner momentarily, and publishing the five runners-up tomorrow. There were about 430 submissions, which make for fun reading, here. Once again it was a very tough choice, so big thanks to all who participated. We think you'll like the winner, but we'll let it speak for itself — concisely! Stand by for that.

And we'll have another Significant Object and its story late this afternoon, as well. Big day!

The future (?) of Significant Objects (Part One)

Click through to read the Significance of each pictured Object

Later today we'll publish the winner of our Six-Word Contest with SmithMag. And later this week we'll post our 100th Significant Object.

And then what?

People have been asking: Is there a way to keep Significant Objects going in some new form when the original 100-object experiment ends? We've been giving this question some thought. It's not anything we'd figured we should worry about when we started this adventure back in July. But ...

Bar Mitzvah Bookends

Object No. 98 of 100

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Stacey Levine, here.]

I'm not a collector, but really a purloiner, and there's only a brief backstory to these novelties.

When my second wife died, I sought companionship. So I installed a soda machine in my bedroom — it would be a conversation piece and might make me more attractive to the ladies. I disabled the cash acceptor. I started going for walks to the little square in downtown Orange, and I thought: Why is no one...

Umbrella Trinket

Object No. 96 of 100

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Bruce Holland Rogers, here.]

By my third visit to Dr. Peragua, I had decided on what I was going to steal. There were lots of candidates. His office is full of keepsakes from his travels to meet shamans, whom he says are his professional colleagues. There are a lot of objects small enough to slip into my pocket, but I decided on the dish for paper clips that sits on Peragua's desk. It was in the shape of an open, upturned...