Honest Mail by Meta tron, Charlie Fish
November 19th, 2007 10:57 AMWe made a couple of fairly half-hearted attempts to start with. We were together in a pub (kicking off the War of Escalating Dares) and we ripped up a menu because it was the only piece of paper we had lying around. Each of us wrote a secret message on the back, stamped and addressed it to each other (Mink to Mouse, Fish to Mink and Mouse to Fish).
I left mine on a tube train, and Mink left hers on a table in the Riverside Studios café (pictured). I don't know if Mouse remembered to leave his. Anyway, none of them got to their destination (this was weeks ago).
So I decided to give it another try. I wrote 12 postcards (proper ones this time) to Mink, put stamps on them and left them in various places around London on 26 September 2007. Scroll to the bottom and click "+ larger" to see photos of the postcards in situ. (And to read what they said!)
- Postcard #1: In a the collection box of a busker outside Brixton station.
- Postcard #2: On a London Underground train.
- Postcard #3: In the Apollo Victoria theatre (currently showing Wicked).
- Postcard #4: On the shelf of a postbox.
- Postcard #5: In the Willow Walk pub in Victoria.
- Postcard #6: In a bank. (I felt really shifty doing this and taking a picture of it.)
- Postcard #7: In the middle of the road (although it blew onto the pavement outside New Scotland Yard).
- Postcard #8: In the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy in a local book store.
- Postcard #9: With the lettuce at Sainsbury's supermarket. (Get it? Lettuce? Letters? Never mind.)
- Postcard #10: In a rack of leaflets at Westminster Library.
- Postcard #11: In a lift at my work HQ office building. (I was almost rumbled on this one.)
- Postcard #12: In a traditional red telephone box.
Mink: I left the country on the 27th Sept and so didn't discover my new correspondence until I returned on 2nd October. There were 6 postcards lying on the doormat - numbers 4, 6, 7, 9, 11 & 12, number 10 arrived the next day and number 5 arrived two days after that. The people who found it had written a little note in the gap where the postmark would later be. It reads
We found this in the Willow walk at Victoria - thought we'd post it on! Honest mail complete... love the girls + ed.I guess they took a look at the website and found out what the honest mail task was first!
3rd October?! I hear you think loudly, why has this taken over a month to post? Well for that I must take all the blame. As I just mentioned, I'd been out of the country and had planned to do my side of the task there, I'd bought 10 greetings from London postcards of various states of hideousness and had intended to abandon them around the cafes and canals of Amsterdam.
Failure.
I had forgotten to take Mr. Fish's address with me (assuming it was on my phone when it was not), damn and blast it!
I then lost the postcards. Grrr.....
With every passing moment of inaction, the guiltier I felt and therefore the more determined to make something cool of this (i.e. worth the wait) so I planned and plotted and finally came up with this.
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The 12 postcards.
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The fronts of some of the postcards.
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Postcard #1 (in the saxophonist dude's guitar case - he didn't notice me put it in!) ... "Dear Mink, Ashamed as I am to admit it (not least because it shows I was a late starter), the first single I ever bought for myself was Donna Lewis 'Always Forever.' Charlie"
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Postcard #2 (on a tube train) ... "Dear Mink, The picture on this card is of my sister and me in about 1986. I've been so privileged to have such a loving family. Mind you, back then, she and I fought like dogs. Charlie"
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Postcard #3 (on the steps of the local theatre) ... "Dear Mink, I got this postcard on a school trip to Ypres at least 15 years ago. I did really well at school, but I always felt out of place. I had to wait until University to really come out of my shell. Charlie"
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Postcard #4 (right next to a postbox!) ... "Dear Mink, This card is intentionally left blank. Charlie"
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Postcard #5 (on a table in a pub) ... "Dear Mink, 'A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.' Charlie"
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Postcard #6 (on a chair in a bank) ... "Dear Mink, The coolest thing to come out of the Dome was the failed diamond heist. Sometimes I feel like our government is utterly incompetent, but usually I find that not reading the daily free papers (nor the history books) makes me feel better. Charlie"
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Postcard #7 (in the middle of the road outside New Scotland Yard) ... "Dear Mink, My life ambition is to be a successful author. But I love my hobbies and distractions too much sometimes - it makes me doubt that I'll make it. I MUST not let myself down, though... Charlie"
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Postcard #8 (in a book in a book store) ... "Dear Mink, I LOVE board games. I won Emma over a game of high-stakes Scrabble. If she'd won I was going to be her campaign manager for the student elections. If I won I'd get to sleep with her. I beat her by 18 points. 6½ years later, we're married! Charlie"
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Postcard #9 (with the lettuce in a supermarket) ... "Dear Mink, I never met my grandmother on my Dad's side. She died before I was born, of a heart condition. She had a heart attack on the ski slopes pictured on this postcard. Charlie"
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Postcard #10 (on a leaflet rack in the library - middle of the top row) ... "Dear Mink, I bought this photo from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida when I was a kid, still living in the U.S.A. I was a terribly precocious, pretentious brat of a kid. My parents LOVED me. Charlie"
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Postcard #11 (in a lift at work) ... "Dear Mink, I'm sure I've never told you that my favourite poem is Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven.' It has such pace, such rhythm, such delicious darkness. I taught it once to a group of children I was counseling in an American summer camp, and we sat around a campfire at night telling ghost stories and reciting The Raven... Wonderful memories! Charlie"
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Postcard #12 (in a phone box - you can just see it next to the "PULL" sign) ... "Dear Mink, All my life I've had an urge to stand out from the crowd - to be a leader (or at least a stirrer) not a follower. So I just wanted to say thank you very much for helping me step outside the path of least resistance by encouraging me to pursue my trajectory of desire. Charlie"
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Mink's earlier attempt at Honest Mail left at the Riverside Studios café... it never reached its destination.
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Mink's earlier attempt at Honest Mail left at the Riverside Studios café... it never reached its destination.
7 postcards
Left by Charlie, received by Mink!
That little bit extra
Little note from the girls and ed saying where they found the card.
Mink's turn
I wrote several post cards and left them lying around London
The fireplace shop
I left the first post card on the window ledge of the fire place shop on my road.
Inside the Barbican
This card disappeared really quickly, too quickly, I think it may have been binned : (
St. James Palace
I tried to make him laugh but he just shook his head at me.
St. Martin's in the fields
Somewhere under there.
St. Martin's in the fields
On the steps down to the crypt (theres a nice cafe and a shop down there).
St. Mary le Strand
Mary le Strand church
St Clements Danes
Postcard in statue's hand outside St. Clement Danes church
It blew away about 10 seconds after this photo was taken.
Fishy font
Shane thought the card looked cool here...
NEXT TO the fishy font
...but Mink thought it might fall in the water and moved it.
Lush in the Covent Garden Piazza
In the 'Lush' soap shop, next to the ruby red sparkle bath bombs.
7 postcards
Left by Mink, received by Charlie!
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(none yet)7 comment(s)
this is so terrific, guys. meta tron, now that i see that you love the post as well, i really want to send you that hardcopy of the audio book. won't you let me? what if it's part of a super vote?
Very nice completion. You gotta love London.
7 out of 12 Mink ---> Charlie, 8 out of 12 Charlie ---> Mink.
Although the one left in the Hitchhikers Guide will find its way home too, in due time, I think.
Wonderful how the middle of the road is a better place to misplace something than the Apollo Victoria theatre (currently showing Wicked)...
I really enjoy completions that share something personal with all of us. Thank you.
There are some tasks for which I always feel like the completions never quite live up to the promise of the task.
Then, there's this one, for which the completions wind up going above and beyond the task description itself.
Nice work, both. And, I love that someone kept the card long enough to see the website, then mailed it off. Hope they sign up and introduce themselves.
Love the sweet sweet confessions on yours, Charlie.
I'd love to see the text of yours, Mink.
This is the most incredibly exchange of mail.
Vive la Post!