Live Free or Die…As a state motto it strikes me as kind of odd. But the good people of New Hampshire seem to stand behind it. Or at least their license plates say they do. When it comes down to it, I am much more fond of Root Hog or Die…for two reasons. First, it is a family motto of sorts for my friend Nora Rocket. Second, King-Cat Comics #50 contains the stories “I Saw Where the Root Hog Lives” parts one and two. What amazing comics–that’s all I can really say about that.

So I am in New Hampshire for the second time in a week. Get to commute to Vermont for work everyday. That’s OK though. Get to drive a little mini Kia thing-a-ma-jobbie. Kind of reminds me of the first car I ever bought new, a little red Ford Aspire (sweet). The Aspire was actually made by Kia, so it’s kind of a trip down memory lane. Except the rental is an Automatic cause you can’t rent a Manual Transmission in the US. I loved that car but drove it into the ground. It is sorely missed.

This is going nowhere. Perhaps I will go find a Coke then go to bed.

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Today I am going to write about letters–Both as shapes/objects and as documents.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source let·ter (ltr) Pronunciation Key n.

1. 1. A written symbol or character representing a speech sound and being a component of an alphabet.
   2. A written symbol or character used in the graphemic representation of a word, such as the h in Thames. See note at Thames.
2. A written or printed communication directed to a person or organization.
3. A certified document granting rights to its bearer. Often used in the plural.
4. Literal meaning: had to adhere to the letter of the law.
5. letters (used with a sing. verb)
   1. Literary culture; belles-lettres.
   2. Learning or knowledge, especially of literature.
   3. Literature or writing as a profession.
6. Printing.
   1. A piece of type that prints a single character.
   2. A specific style of type.
   3. The characters in one style of type.
7. An emblem in the shape of the initial of a school awarded for outstanding performance, especially in varsity athletics.

The First: As a result of the Madison Zine Fest, Crumbs on the Cutting Board received it’s first major review! The actual article can be found in the October 27th edition of From the Stacks on Utne.com Here is the full review:

“Fashioned with an X-Acto knife, some ink washes, and a vintage cookbook, Crumbs on the Cutting Board waltzes through a rhyming ode to food. Created by Alexis “Lex” McQuilkin, the zine features some intricate paper-cuttings of foodstuffs, such as dim sum and quiche, pasted atop dated cooking guides and recipes, along with a singsong poem (”W is for weiners/boiled and slick/X is for xanthan gum/making sauce thick”). Despite his description of Crumbs… as free of “an overwhelming amount of thought and emotion,” McQuilkin succeeds in creating a visually impressive piece of zine-art. — Rachel Anderson”

The Second: My life is fairly secular. I didn’t grow up involved with organized religion and consider myself Agnostic in my beliefs. However easy it is to be surrounded by religions of all kinds and not be involved, I am not without faith. My faith is ever evolving and rewrites itself much like that of a 5.25 Floppy in an Apple IIe. (Remember we we used to play Oregon Trail in the library of Adolph Link Elementary School?)

Anywhoo, here is the point…I normally don’t pay attention to Yahoo’s articles that are featured on their main page. One in particular, this morning, caught my eye. It is basically about how a father and son found a bag of letters to God (c/o a deceased minister) washed up on the Jersey Shore. The part that intrigues me the most is the How and Why? Surely we may never know the specifics, perhaps this is a modern day message in a bottle tale, with the bottle being replaced by an equally immortal plastic bag. I can only speculate, and believe you me, I have. One (of the many) fascinating aspect to this article is that the finders are going to be putting the letters up for sale on Ebay, of course. Why not, everything else known to man ends up for sale on the ‘bay. My solution, and I can see people bemoaning “pollution, ” is to give each letter it’s own proper bottle, sealed with wax, and set them adrift once more.  Perhaps they will be found in 300 years (you know, when our population has been reduced to that aping Mad Max Beyond Thumderdome.)

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