dual personalities

Last week, I didn’t blog because I was at the Unclaimed Property Auction in Kansas City. Unclaimed Property is one of the many things I’ve learned about as a state employee. Sadly, I have yet to discover $30,000 of long lost money (just $58 in the state of New York). But I digress.

The auction is an annual event (although this was the first since 2019) where the Treasurer’s Office auctions off items found in abandoned safe deposit boxes that have been turned over to the office. The earnings from the sale are kept in perpetuity for the owner.

I spent three full days with the Unclaimed Property staff, helping out where I could and creating some pretty great social content. It was a lot of work and long days–but also a fascinating event. I already knew about the random stuff you can find in a safe deposit box. I mean, you expect family heirlooms, documents, valuables like jewelry and coins. But you also find stuff that makes you scratch your head. A full clown costume–from the wig to the shoes. A DVD copy of The Notebook. A NASCAR hat signed by Richard Petty. And then there’s this:

“”You’re the department?”

She saluted. “Unclaimed property manager. I’m my own branch of the Wyoming State Treasury Department.”

“I have to ask. What kind of stuff do you find?”

She looked back out the windshield. “All kinds of things. We found an 1863 ambassadorial appointment signed by Abraham Lincoln, and just last week I found an old collection of Nazi campaign ribbons from World War II. Pocket watches, stocks, bonds…There was this one in Gillette that had a complete change of clothes, a ski mask, and a pistol.” I turned and looked at her. “Then there are the polaroids. We’ve got a stack of nude snapshots that is over a foot tall.””

Death Without Company, Craig Johnson

That’s right. Unclaimed Property even plays a (minor) role in one of the Longmire books. I sent a longer version of that passage to our Unclaimed Property Director and his response was “Hilarious. We could have wrote that.” He isn’t wrong. In fact, we have also found a ski mask, a change of clothes, and a handgun. A couple of months ago, we found a civil war-era journal kept by a soldier that contained a passage about President Lincoln reviewing the troops.

The auction draws serious collectors from around the country–yes, really–who mostly come for the coins and jewelry. Some of it will be melted down, other bits added to collections. I find it all interesting and sad at the same time–the heirloom jewelry that is kind of hideous, the fake Rolex watches they thought were real, the real Rolex they never wore because it was in a safe deposit box. Each item was important enough to someone that they wanted to keep in a bank and then it still ended up totally lost.

It’s a good reminder to always document if you have a safe deposit box so that it doesn’t get lost. And, of course, check ShowMeMoney.com (or unclaimed.org if you’re out of state) to see if you have any Unclaimed Property!

*Brooklyn 99, of course

Earlier this week I made meatloaf for dinner — or at least tried to. I got it ready ahead of time and put it in the fridge, and then became deeply engrossed in a writing project. At the appropriate time, I took a break to put the oven on. Eventually, the DH arrived home from the office and I went to prepare potatoes and veg. When I opened the oven door to check the meatloaf, I was surprised to discover… nothing. How could this be? Where was the meatloaf? I found it in the fridge, where I had left it. Oops. My husband, who remained unperturbed, calmly suggested that we have bacon and eggs and save the meatloaf for the next day. So, we did. It all worked out, and hey, at least I didn’t do this:

In other beef related news, I saw a good movie on Netflix called Operation Mincemeat. I’m not saying it stands among the greats but compared to 99% of other new movies it was wonderful. Anyway, I thought it struck all the right chords, and it’s a true story!

It’s 1943 and the Allies are getting ready to invade Sicily. Rear Admiral John Godfrey and Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming (yes, the author who created James Bond) write a memo suggesting a way to hoodwink the Germans into believing that the attack will come in Greece rather than Sicily. Committee twenty (as in XX or double cross) is tasked with carrying out the deception, which involves finding an appropriate corpse, creating a backstory for it, putting Top Secret material in a briefcase attached to its wrist and then dumping it in the sea off Spain in such a way that the Nazis are certain to find it. Political problems, love triangles and plenty of nail-biting ensue. The movie has a good script, excellent cast (Colin Firth, Jason Isaacs, Penelope Wilton and Matthew MacFadyen), no violence to speak of and no sex. It was refreshingly normal. Back in 2020, my DP posted about an earlier version of the story that I have not seen, the 1956 film The Man Who Never Was starring Clifton Webb. If you are interested in Operation Mincemeat, you can watch this documentary to find out more.

It’s our anniversary today and also happens to be my turn to cook dinner. If you can recommend easy but delicious recipes that don’t involve long periods of inactivity during which I can get distracted and then forget to cook the rest, I’d be delighted if you’d put them in the comments.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!

Yesterday I met a friend for coffee. We had a lovely time, although we observed more than once that everyone we know, whatever their politics, feels bad about the state of the world and worried about the future and their place in it. There’s not much we can do about the world — it will go as it goes — but we can cheer ourselves up while we attempt to navigate through it. In an effort to do so, let’s look at a few of Gary Larsen’s Far Side cartoons.

You remember The Far Side, don’t you? Larsen’s single-panel cartoons appeared in newspapers, calenders, books and other paraphernalia from 1979-1995, at which point he retired. I have fond memories of my Far Side mug. The caption reads “Chad Billingsly experiencing a period of disinclination” – a sentiment that speaks to me on many levels.

This one, being simply perfect, requires no additional comment.

This classic cartoon has been on the DH’s office door for nigh on thirty years now.

And this one raises many deep, existential questions.

The final cartoon reminds us that as a species we are amazingly clueless, so when everything goes wrong we have only ourselves to blame.

As the DH is fond of saying, humans are at the top of the food chain because we can outwit sheep and lobsters.

Have a wonderful weekend and don’t let the turkeys (or sheep and lobsters) get you down!