Saturday, August 28, 2010

This is Bizarre

The latest weird things to be found in books - I don't quite know what these are. They were found in a volume of Histoire Générale de l'Église, and they consist of 1.5 x 1.5 inch squares in pencil, each on its own little sheet of paper. Inside the squares are drawn (in pencil) hundreds of little circles. Outside each box is written a number which I assume is the count of little circles in the box. What is this for!? Meditation -- each is a Hail Mary? Punishment -- some poor child was told to draw way too many little circles within a teacher's carefully drawn square? Mathematics -- a really tedious way to add? Fun? Sheer boredom? I don't know. (The pictures here are larger than actual size.)



Also found was a bill of lading for the Boston and Maine Railroad. In it, 470 lbs of clothing are being shipped to a Mr. Wilfrid Rosseau in Montreal. Perhaps he was anxiously awaiting the arrival of his parcels, whose carrier was late, and, being bored to death, conducted an experiment in concentration and hand-eye coordination -- this instead of reading on the history of the Church. He certainly had a fine-tip pencil at hand, otherwise this feat would have been impossible.



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2 comments:

  1. Drawing tiny circles to waste time develops precise hand eye coordination. It's worth something.

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  2. I suppose it could be considered part of a complete hand/forearm workout. The practice of drawing tiny circles over and over and over again and again would build and tone the otherwise flabby girly-man muscles located in out-of-the-way corners of the hand and wrist. Even the most powerful of manly men with crushing strength do not usually develop to full potential this oft-ignored group of muscles.

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