A New Era of Thought
A large brown envelope thudded through the letter box and onto the doormat below.
On closer inspection it was postmarked Canada.
As i opened with curiosity and revealed the contents I realised the mystery was about to begin …..
Excitement turned to despair as even though it was full of intriguing items and a broadsheet to devour , there was literally nothing to tell me how I should go about this whole process . Nothing. Not one clue or scrap of paper.
Now being new to all this , I felt at a complete disadvantage – what was I supposed to be looking for ? How would I piece the story together ?
Even the sitting room which had few clues were full of more puzzles than hints …..
I decided to look at the contents of the package more closely and see what I could work with ….
A large brown envelope thudded through the letter box and onto the doormat below.
On closer inspection it was postmarked Canada.
As i opened with curiosity and revealed the contents I realised the mystery was about to begin …..
The Contents of the Envelope included but didn’t end at ….
• a large broadsheet newspaper
• two luggage label stickers ;
Lilliput and Houyhnhmn Land
● An empty envelope addressed to the Mysterious Package Company HQ – on the back typed
● A poster of Annie Eddison Taylor
Then onto the broadsheet itself…..
October 21st 19
Annie Eddieson Taylor was the main headline and her daring Niagra Falls barrel stunt ….. the woman was and she took her cat ! Amazingly she actually survived this stunt ….of course this linked in with the poster enclosed in the envelope.
At the bottom of the front page was a piece dated April 1967, New York by a Madame Mospherne (immediately her name makes me think of morphine but I am unsure why)
With vintage advertisements, horoscopes, a crossword section and personal ads it is very much like any other newspaper collective. But for one thing – everything has a subtext , much of it is linked and the puzzles themselves have puzzles hidden inside them.
One puzzle I literally spent three days trying to decode …. in the end I searched in a discussion forum specially for Curious and Conundrums and this is where I fell out of intrigue with this mystery …..
The discussion group actually made me feel stupid , the content so highbrow and knowledge so certain I felt completely out of my depth and a certain snotty reply to my hesitant theory suggestion totally put me off the whole thing completely – I gave up ! There and then.
In the end I found this more frustrating than pleasurable and didn’t have the time to fully research as I needed to. I adored the paper and the objects , enjoyed the actual real life stories it used but the puzzles and attitudes of others completely spoilt it for me .
Smarting from the admin of the discussion groups reply I found myself cancelling my subscription …… or so I thought ……….
Lorraine A Life Less Ordinary 