Tag Archive | "dead relative"

Rooster Oven Mitt

Friday, November 6, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Victor LaValle, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $51.99.] Who the hell goes to Portugal? In my family? The question arose as my sister and I were going through my grandmother’s things—her effects. She’d died of old age at Queens General Hospital and she’d been longing for [...]

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Alien Toy

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Nomi Kane, here. Original price: 49 cents. Final price: $37. This story is the second in a three-part series produced in collaboration with The Center for Cartoon Studies. ]

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Round Box

Monday, September 14, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Tim Carvell, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $35.] On December 17, 1948, the Humboldt twins entered the world, Jerome screaming, Luke laughing. This pattern held. Jerome grew up to be as petulant, difficult and miserable as Luke was cheery, optimistic and polite. Their father, Max, [...]

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Grain Thing

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Joanne McNeil, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $20.50.] Among the many misconceptions that prevail about my great-grandfather, Hartford Townes Hastings, the most infuriating is the idea that he was a disinterested playboy benefactor, squandering the family fortune on “women and dreams,” as the New York [...]

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Porcelain Scooter

Thursday, August 20, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with song (MP3, and lyrics, below), by Teddy Blanks, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $2.38. This was part of a special collaboration with Design Observer, where it was co-published here.] CLICK BUTTON to listen to “Figurines” by Teddy Blanks. Please wait while the audio loads. // < ![CDATA[ [...]

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Unicorn

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sarah Weinman, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $26.] A week after the shiva, still not quite used to seeing my own reflection in the uncovered mirrors, I mustered up the nerve to sift through my aunt Holly’s belongings. Well, she wasn’t exactly my aunt; she’d [...]

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Duck Tray

Friday, July 24, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Stewart O'Nan, has ended. Original price: $3. Final price: $71.] Every evening when Henry came home from work, without fail, he set his briefcase on the marble-topped table in the front hall, climbed the stairs to their room, faced the dresser and emptied his pockets before hanging [...]

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Necking Team Button

Thursday, July 9, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Susannah Breslin, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $36.88] I reached my hand into the drawer, withdrew it, and looked at what lay in my palm. “ALL AMERICAN OFFICIAL NECKING TEAM,” the pin read. It was hard to reconcile the words with my father. At [...]

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Toy Toaster

Thursday, July 9, 2009

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[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Jonathan Goldstein, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $6.25.] Twenty years after the man’s death, I still can’t rightly say whether my uncle Dwayne was a benevolent old-timey Grandpa Walton type or a secret sadistic performance artist. By the time I met him, Dwayne was a [...]

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Chili Cat figurine

Monday, July 6, 2009

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[The bidding on this Significant Object, with story by Lydia Millet, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $22.72.] I went with my friend G to her great aunt’s house a few weeks after the aunt passed away. G had been called in by the family to pick out one or two keepsakes. Because she [...]

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