Drew Valente wasn't planning to participate in Show & Tell, but then his girlfriend, with whom he was sitting in the audience, rooted around in her bag and found this "Get Out of Hell Free" card, which someone had left under the windshield wiper of their car in New Haven a few years ago. (You can get a closer look at the card here.) The back of the card has a series of Bible verses and the URL for the web site NeedGod.com, which features an online survey. Drew took the survey on his phone just a few minutes before presenting the card and reported that the results were, "You are a bad person." (Photo by Cameron Blaylock)
Anita Flores has, as she puts it, "a long history of wearing pants with an elastic band." She started wearing sweatpants in high school and kind of got hooked on them in college, where she wore them around campus — a social faux pas she now regrets ("One you start dropping food on them, they basically become a napkin"). She eventually swore off sweatpants altogether but made an exception for the pants she's holding in the photo, which she purchased during a trip to India. "These don't count," she said, "because they're from another country." (Photo by Cameron Blaylock)
For years, Andy Cai only drank wine and had no interest in beer. Then, nine years ago, he tried a pint of Fuller's London Pride, which he liked so much that it turned him into a discerning beer aficionado and home brewer. He hadn't had Fuller's in several years and was surprised to see it on tap at Freddy's, where Show & Tell takes place. So he ordered a pint and used it to tell the story of his wine-to-beer conversion. (Photo by Cameron Blaylock)
When Robin Eisgrau was growing up, she was fascinated by the 1980 film Times Square — in part because of its new wave soundtrack, in part because it seemed to capture the excitement and danger of Manhattan, and in part because it featured the actress Robin Johnson ("It was the first time I'd been aware of an actress named Robin"). She finally saw the movie recently at Anthology Film Archives, after which she went out and made the long-overdue purchase of the two-LP soundtrack — even though she no longer owns a turntable. She also checked in on the career of Robin Johnson, who, as it turns out, went on to become a traffic reporter for a Los Angeles radio station. (Photo by Cameron Blaylock)
Mel Daly says she has "a great fear of not having access to food." So she always has a travel fork — or better yet, as you can see above, two travel forks, both of which fit into one case — on her person. She feels better knowing that she's prepared for a "a lifeboat situation," as she puts it, plus she likes that the travel forks are more environmentally friendly than the plastic utensils that typically come with take-out. (Photo by Cameron Blaylock)
We conclude once again with Show & Tell host Paul Lukas — me. Several years ago a friend of a friend heard I was interested in unusual objects and gave me this copy of Martha Stewart Living in Braille. Just about anything in Braille is interesting, because the pages are so tactile and the characters seem so indecipherable. But a Braille version of Martha Stewart Living is extra-fascinating, because it seems like such an unlikely thing for a blind person to be reading. If you want to know more, a fairly detailed examination of this Braille issue of MSL can be found here. (Photo by Cameron Blaylock)
Big thanks to all participants, and doubleplusthanks to Cameron Blaylock for the photos. Speaking of which, we need a photographer for next month's Show & Tell, which will be on Wednesday, Nov. 14. So if you'd like to be the official Show & Tell shutterbug for a month (or longer), please get in touch.
