In my conservative estimation, I obtain a dozen bookmarks per year. The number might be much higher. I pick up free bookmarks at counters, clerks tuck them in with my purchases when I buy books, movies, or music, and I sometimes receive nice bookmarks as gifts.
So where do they all go? At a dozen per year, that's 240 bookmarks since I reached adulthood. Why do I end up using napkins, pens, coasters, envelopes, receipts, and everything else?
I guess a fair number get left in the books. There are probably 50 hidden in books on my shelves right now, and some have probably disappeared in the library bookdrop.
There does seem to be one definite rule: the nicer the bookmark the more quickly I lose it. Give me a sturdy plastic bookmark engraved with a neat character or phrase and it will vanish in an instant. On the other hand, the stub from Jewish Hospital's parking garage has lasted me through at least five books now.
This same rule appears to apply in other instances. Nice metal divot fixers escape before they even reach the first tee, but the cheap plastic ones accumulate as if they are breeding in my golf bag. Lovely engraved pens are misplaced forever while cheap Bics with fading ink hang around for all eternity.
3 comments:
Yes, indeedy, though I don't think I lose bookmarks so much as leave them sitting on the same shelf in the same book for ages. I actually have bookmarks that I received as gifts years ago (I still have one that I think Mom and Dad gave me when I was twelve.) However, the one I just finished using was a cardboard card with a contest code that Kim had pulled from an "O" magazine. Usually I use receipts or magazine subscription cards. I suppose I don't use the nice genuine store-bought bookmarks because I don't want to lose them.
I use business cards quite often when in a pinch, but I have been using a 2007 PGA Tour schedule since....well, late 2006.
Just seeing if I can leave a comment on your blog, because I can't leave one on Brian's for some reason.
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