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March 17, 2008 |
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Ants!
FOUND by Conrad
in Canby, Oregon
A crumpled sticky-note found in an upscale subdivision warns of an alien invasion, but carries undertones of class consciousness.
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
I can't believe Im the first post!!!!!!!! :O
I hate ants!!! All kinds of ants!! They really are unbelievable creatures but sooo creepy!! Especially ones that bite!! Ooooo I dont like them!
The handwriting seems to get crappier as it goes along.
plat
ter
is silly.
Mmmmmm, ants ... thanks for the heads up! I think it was a little greedy of you to take ALL the ones you saw, but if you're sure there's more, then I hope I can find them....
I'm curious why this person chose to write "In your Break room you have ants" instead of just saying "You have ants in your Break room"... Fancy. Maybe they didn't intend to write that, but started to by accident, and instead of simply grabbing another stupid little sticky-note and starting over, they just continued the way it was because it's easier. Everyone does this...
Also...Any Break room that has silver platter... really shouldn't be having ants...Ew.
At least the sticky-note is pink. Good change from yellow...
@Conrad, the finder. I loved your comment about class consciousness...perfect.
reminiscent of this find
http://www.foundmagazine.com/find/1676
though the 'ants' find is indeed a touch more upscale
I initially read this as "in your bathroom." But the silver platter made me second guess that. (Loved the comment, Conrad)
I also had to re-read Ian's name. Trippy. :)
I'm not a fan of the ant either, but you do have to respect their ambition. There is a colony in my bathroom hell bent on world domination. There is no food in there. I even keep my toothpaste and moisturiser in the fridge to deter them. But as our note writer says "I'm sure there are more" ... THERE ARE ALWAYS MORE!
Terro products work great against ants.
An eco friendly way to drive away ants is to mix vinegar and water 50/50 and add a generous amount of lavendar essential oil. Spray surfaces with this blend and wipe down. No rinse. Ants hate lavendar and will avoid it. We were invaded this summer due to local repaving, and I learned this valuable trick.
I obviously don't understand what a "subdivision" is...I was thinking private houses. But if it has a "break room" it must be apartments. A break room for the residents? Surely you take breaks in your own home? Or do they mean for the servants/staff?
rather have ants than mice (i have mice... and no-kill traps, problem with mice is that they learn..)
anyhoo, the boy-child just fixed someones computer other day, when he lifted off the cpu shell it was full of ants, they came streaming out- creepy.
BB, i too, am confused about the location of the breakroom. Maybe this was someone's note that they dragged home from work. Where was this found? Outside a home in a subdivision?
I've hear that sprinkling paprika will keep the ants away. Of course, it attracts spaniards, so, you really can't win.
wrye.. you seriously had ants in your cpu? omg.. seriously? that's tres creepy.
i thought that there would be something st. paddy's day themed. ah well.
No idea what an upscale subdivision is (or a breakroom, come to think of it).
I don't read class consciousness in this, just a veiled passive-aggressive hint to clear up the food leftovers.
There's some stuff you can put down for ants that they really like, so they send all their chums back for more and it kills them. (Well, some of them. Like the man says, there are always more.)
Raisin muffin, I think he/she wrote 'You have ants' and then squeezed in 'in your breakroom' at the top to be more specific.
Might not have been a real silver platter, just a shiny tin one or even a cardboard one as used for a weddng cake?
In the light of my recent operatic experiences I can't help thinking of John the Baptist (sorry ;-( ).
I think the silver platter is figurative; that would go along with the passive aggressive vibe. As in, sure, if you give them crumbs on a silver platter, the ants will come and occupy your breakroom.
Otherwise - well, the upscale subdivision will have to fire their maid.
wrye: now I am ridiculously afraid of my cpu...
For some reason, I pictured the kitchen of a clubhouse in an upscale subdivision... but that wouldn't be the same as a breakroom. It's odd what kind of connections the mind makes after a mere ten minutes of consciousness.
I like Jonathan's idea that it might not be a real silver platter. I am picturing the big round tin kind that comes under the million cookies people sometimes buy for parties.
I also find it interesting that it says "in YOUR breakroom." Why not "the" breakroom or "our" breakroom. Who was this person snooping in a breakroom that wasn't theirs? Clearly not an exterminator... What kind of exterminator kills only the ones they see?
I wonder what kind of ants...big black ones or the dreaded fire ants. One time we had an infestation of fire ants in our home. Our bath tub faucet had a leak and was leaking into the wall which for some reason attracted a huge colony of fire ants.
Also, @reading: I don't normally consider the breakroom, our breakroom or my breakroom....it's just the breakroom to everyone here at the office.
Ants.........Yum. Scoop them babies up. Delicious! I hope there's plenty left; and I hope they're the big black ones, as I particularly favor their slight mustard overtones - the red fire ants are almost tasteless.
..the ants were enjoying the crumbs from my delicious birthday cake, i'm sure..
I wish the sticky note were green.
Until I read the comments, I thought it said Slover Platter. It's monday :P Happy St. Patricks Day all!
Oops I forgot to sign in! Must be because it's my birthday!
Happy Birthday, Clover.
Orwellian Rebellion.
happy b day, clovemeister.. or clovemeistress. hope you have a good one
If they are just in your breakroom, do they still make you do the boogie dance?
I certainly hope the writer wasn't a future customer for whatever company has an ant infested break room. Could be bad for business. Thanks baby basil for the anti-ant tip, I wrote that one down. I'm also wondering about man behind the curtain and the chilly moisturiser, mighty refreshing straight from the fridge, no?
And of course, Happy Birthday, Clover!!
Now.. lets see if I get the name and spam question both right. Challenging for a Monday morning, but I'll try.
I'm still waiting
For the Ants Invasion.
Happy Happy b-day Clover!!!
My friend in hs had ants in her bathroom-- every time I spent the night there, I dreaded showering and more specifically washing my hair, since there were always a couple dead floating ants in the shampoo.
Ever been up in the mountains and seen those black ants that are about an inch long? I was just talking about those the other day.
When your birthday's on St. Patrick's Day, you get pinched to grow an inch, even if you're wearing green. So don't tell.. Thanks for the birthday wishes mes amis et mes amies! Have a happy day!
When I was in HS I was friends with a girl whose family believed in letting nature into their house. As a result there were ants, spiders, beetles, and mice running wild and free in just about every room.
Eventually they decided to try and sell, and after some serious battles they managed to clear off everything except the ants. Those bloody things just WOULD NOT go away!
Years later my house developed a bad case of ants in the kitchen and my bf used to refer to them as "Napoleon’s Army.” They were initially attracted by the quantity of unwashed pint glasses my housemates used to leave sitting around, and when we finally got all those cleared away and the invasion stemmed, we had to be super-vigilant. I swear if we left one dish in the sink they knew!
@Carla Sue (and anyone else who wants to know): By "generous amount" I meant say 20 drops for a pint of liquid. Go easy with essential oils, not least because they're expensive. Teatree oil will work at a pinch but lavendar smells better.
Basil plants will also keep mosquitoes away if placed in front of an open window; small-leaved "curly" sweet basil works best for this. You can also put the pot on your bedside table to good effect. Citronella oil in water, sprayed around, works too.
anyone else think the make out club banner ad is waaaaay too realistic for this find? creepy! (there, i said it!)
[ if i were an ant, i would also aim for the sliver platter ]
and mona lisa: love your comment about paprika banishing ants, but attracting spaniards. sounds like a win-win to me.
I think this note might be from the Orkin guy. Every month after he walks about the office spraying all those dark little nooks and crannys, the office manager calls and complains they STILL have bugs.
He's simply handing the reason "WHY" to her on a silver platter.
Don't understand where the class conciousness comes into this find at all? can someone explain?
Also, I can't figure out what so many people have no idea what a subdivision is. Maybe they don't have subdivisions outside the U.S.? And Jonathan are you just oddly uninformed or maybe Super rich
as you don't know either what a subdivision is or a breakroom?! Are you part of the idle rich who doesn't work?
The tone of this comment reminds me of my mother in law, so I was initially inclined to think the writer was a middle aged woman writing with a mental finger wagging... But how many girls write in all caps? There are a few, but I bet an far fewer number of those write so sloppy....
@No longer living in fear - Napoleon's Army... Priceless.
baby basil.. thank you for the pest tips. can you tell me if cats like to eat basil plants? I have a cat infestation, and trying to figure out ways of keeping them out of my plants. One of them dearly likes to sleep in my spiderplant thing.
minphx (trying to pronounce that as one word) I agree about the makeout club ad. It is distracting and creepish. (not quite creepy, cuz i know they're not real.. i know they're not real, i know they're not real.)
I have a vision of putting out the paprika, and then someone whispering to me.. 'you look maaahhhhhvellous'
laughing at the image of Jonathan as one of the idle rich.
I'm so glad someone mentioned the Make Out Club Ad. It freaked me out after all of the ant talk...especially after Wrye's comment, I too was ridiculously thinking that ants were crawling on my screen.
An upscale subdivision is a subdivision comprised of higher priced homes for that particular area. For instance, if you lived Florida along the coast, a subdivision that could consider itself upscale would be one that was priced anywhere from $800,000 to somewhere in the millions (of dollars that is).
A breakroom could possibly be found in an upscale subdivision if it has a clubhouse.
oops.."in Florida"
If spoken with the right inflections, this note almost sounds poetic.
My ex boyfriend fancied himself something of a revenge specialist... He once found out in advance he was going to be "released" from his job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant (for smoking in the kitchen!) and so went out and got a bunch of ants in a jar and released them in the food prep area on his last day. He also left a stick-note reading (i think): "Saw some ants."
His goal was to get everyone to freak out, but I'm betting the ants just died.
Ants are only marginally better than those house centipedes <shiver>
Thanks, Winston. I know now. Nope, no equivalent terminology in the UK -- you might say 'a more upmarket area' or 'where the better-off people live', but no such specific demarcations.
Even 'the million-pound houses' isn't a guide any more, since $800,000 isn't going to buy you anything much in London, except in a very downmarket area (you know, with the rappers and the hoodies).
(Idle rich?? moi?? You jest.)
I can guess what a 'breakroom' would be, but again not a concept I'm familiar with. 'Recreation room' or 'communal lounge' perhaps, unless it's in a school or college when it would be a 'common room' (staff or students), or a 'green room' backstage in a theatre. (In Cambridge colleges it used to be called a 'combination room' -- probably an 18th-century term.)
I like Cotton's theory that the note was left by the Pest Control person (except that he would have an official report form to write it on, surely?).
I have basil on my kitchen windowsill. Must be why I don't have mosquitoes.
Someone told ne to put paprika in my bird feeders to deter squirrels. It didn't work, but hot chilli powder did.
Oh, and I have some of that special white powder that keeps elephants away.
Happy birthday, Clover!! (with a pinch!)
@ Mona... I think m in phx is actally M in Phoenix. Don't worry though, I tried to sound it out, too.
My auntie and I made donuts and dipped them in sugar, but there were pissants in the sugar. We served them to the family anyway. Didn't tell them, either.
I never thought ants tasted like mustard, more like Sweet Tarts. Kinda tangy.
Happy Birthday Clover!
The last building I lived in was situated on a slight incline, which meant that my first-floor apartment in the rear of the building was half underground. At one point, there was a constant stream of ants coming in through the bathroom ceiling, originating from a big ol' nest at the base of a tree right outside. They were of the tiny, brownish black variety, and I found that the easiest way to keep them under control until they could be exterminated was to make a loop of duct tape, sticky side out, and roll it firmly over their little parades. Not only did it kill most of them, it eliminated any additional cleanup. Further proof that the list of uses for man's best friend (duct tape, not ants) is limitless and ever-expanding.
I still get a few of the little fuckers in my current apartment, but few enough that they are easily controlled with those little plastic traps that lure them in with a scent that I've noticed is remarkably similar to the aroma of Ritz crackers.
When I think of breakrooms I picture those insufficient -- usually small and sparsely furnished -- spaces at the back of big box retailers or massive warehouses where their downtrodden employees can sit and drink their Diet Coke and read last week's discarded newspaper for 15 minutes before returning to the grind of stocking plasma TVs or scanning groceries.
The silver platter is out of place, right? Even though it's probably just one of those cheap plastic ones caterers provide with their cookie or sandwich platters -- left over from some manager training meeting and then set out the breakroom for the day-to-day laborers (the worker ants -- you see the layers this simple note is building here, right?) to polish off their fat managers' remnants. So the silver platter is just a goading implement against the workers -- an arrogant reminder of the egregious wage discrepancies! Damn cake eaters!
So a member of the petty bourgeoisie management comes in and "gets" the poor ants enjoying those scant crumbs! Just a pathetic metaphor for the crushing of the proletariat under the thumb of capitalism's chubby thumb.
But, like <b>the man behind the curtain</b> says, there are ALWAYS MORE ANTS! The proletariat will continue to rise up against the capitalists. Worker (ants) unite! Revolution! REVOLUTION!
See? Take one scribbled post-it note, add Marxist critique, and voila! One batch of class consciousness. Yummy.
But clean up the crumbs when you're done. You don't want to attract ants...
The tension/confusion we've noted stems from the disjuncture of a "breakroom" in or near an upscale (residential) subdivision. No breakrooms there! So makes one wonder where this note originated and how it traveled across town...
Am I the only person who gets the feeling that Conrad the FINDER wrote the whole "upscale subdivision" thing to add to the "Silver Plater/Class Consciousness" theme?!
In my office, we've got two kitchens, and you best believe we refer to them as YOUR kitchen and OUR kitchen, so I wouldn't be surprised if an office had two breakrooms... And where better to have ants than YOUR breakroom and not ours?! ;)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLOVER!!!!
Sorry...I should have explained Breakroom as well...it could be termed a lounge. It ususually has a sink and maybe a few appliances and possibly some vending machines. One store that I know of has a 65" HDTV, with an XBOX and a few other game consuls, game chairs to sit in, and a few other luxuries. Thus, it varies from company to company. Something like a breakroom can be found in a subdivision but I believe that most residents consider it a clubhouse, having the same kind of stuff as most breakrooms but entirely for a different purpose...for neighbors to come together and hang out.
Thank you Not So Clever in Creating Your Handle! :) haha.
Oh yeah...Happy Birthday Clover.
Gin...my company has several breakrooms under one room. Two on my floor alone.
I'm sure those are black ants.
I put under one room....ha! I meant under one roof. Gawd, my typing has gone to pot!
We have fire ants where I live and they hurt like the dickens. As a child we also had a make out club in my next door neighbo's closet. Sometimes it was called the Playboy club cause we showed each other our business.
Oh, and Happy B-day, Clover. 29?
Check out the makeout club. Pretty cool.
Happy Birthday, Clover.
I have ants every summer, they come in from under the baseboards and I can never find where they're coming in from outside. I sprinkle baby powder all along the baseboards, works great.
my upscale suburban mcmansion has a breakroom. i go there when i'm tired of the pool room or the rec room or the entertainment room or the reading room. all of my pastries are served on sterling silver platters. i hire college students to kill my ants -- not because i dislike ants. but because my crumbs aren't for them to enjoy. they're MINE.
kill them college student! kill them! and then be sure to leave me a cute pink post-it telling me that the deed has been done. then come back tomorrow for another menial housekeeping task.
not so clever, you sound like our old friend Rex in MKE. fight the good fight, brother.
@Jonathan: I imagine an upscale subdivision is the kind of neighborhood where Margot and Jerry Ledbetter lived (before Tom and Barbara went self-sufficient.)
And a breakroom would be a small windowless room at the back of Grace Brother's where Mrs Slocombe and Mr Humphries would have tea, all the while complaining about having to share these quarters with Mr Harmon. (Although, in their workday, weren't they all on a perpetusl break?)
And Jonathan, you could SO do the role of the idle super rich. Imagine the spirited conversations you could have with Rex Winsome!Work it, baby!
But oddly uniformed? Hardly! In fact you are probably one of the most oddly INFORMED people I know.
Happy Birthday, Clover!
Turbo, ants in your pants in the breakroom make you break dance!
Bustin' a move for Clover's birthday.
Ma bella Mona Lisa....spider plants are poisonous to cats (or so they say) so if kitty chomps on it that may solve the problem. If not, a few well-placed squirts of citrus oil (orange or lemon) will do it--cats hate citrus. Or you could just leave lemon or orange peels lying around but that's not aesthetically pleasing! I think the oils are a more felicitous solution.
Lance, I first read that as "ants in the breakroom in your pants make you dance!" I'm tired...night all....
I just logged on a home and come up with a found from April 2004. What's up with that? I had to go to the search find and type in rap music so I could get closer to the current find. Has this happened to anyone else?
I think these are black ants.
That happen to me when I logged in too. So for kicks I went to the comments of 2003 Found and there were current comments. I assume this is happening to other Founders as well. Is this true?
STFU Pepper! I really tried to muffle it, but for Mona I just can't.
Hey, who is our "mystery poster" that posts comments with no name or location? And how do they manage it? And why are they not deleted?
Life questions....
Ant's don't creep much out as much as spiders. They're just a pain in the ass. I hate the red ones.
Pepp, I thought it was funny.
Just checking to see if I could mystery post too!
YAY...I can. This is Winston in Durham by the way.
I find today's "find" boring as our office shares a communal kitchen with an anal uptight OCD who leaves us passive/aggressive notes like this all the time - so, for me, it's all just same old, same old.
Just as an aside, I usually log in through Mozilla and don't get to see the American Apparel ads. But today I logged in thru a different server and it was like OMG WTF?! Surely, Americans do not dress with skin-tight 70's nightmares with no underwear underneath and dead crackwhore eyes. God in heaven, one was bad enough, I certainly have no desire to see 40 more of these abominations. This is a little joke by the Found people right? Right????
I've always heard that it's cayenne pepper that deters ants. It worked when I was in Solvang, CA and had serious ant issues. Never tried paprika. Febreeze worked, too.
Cabbage,
Nope, American Apparel does not properly reflect true American Apparel. =)
@ Lost in Found: ha! genius.
and @ brain problem and mona: yeah i *was* simply in phoenix, but now you've helped me create a name that is just hard to pronounce, waaay cooler. thanks:)
60 comments and only one Adam Ant reference?
I expect better from you all.
Here is your comment:
I googled him and he terrifies me.
We mustn't have ants in the breakroom. Everyone, into the bunkers!
How about alien ant farm?
or Ant and Dec?
Annie are you okay are you okay are you okay, Annie?
thanks, basil. i'll use those suggestions to keep the kitties away from my spider plant. FYI, they've chewed on it before, and they are not affected.
Happy Birthday Clover! is my sister's also, shall have to pinch her now...
for ants in the yard, dump instant grits on them. they eat them, swell up and die happy. it kinda works. school chalk across an ant-path in the house works also...
but, does the 'makeout club' have a break room? a breakup room? it's creepy... what are thoose little things anyway?
someone's terrified of Adam Ant?? He's freakin' awesome!
I always liked the song Car Trouble.. back then I had a light blue car, and experienced car trouble on a regular basis. I think that was Adam and the Ants, though.
Dude, I'm sure there are more ants.
Where there are ants there are always more ants.
Couple of fixes to the site to mention... we've extended the amount of time between logins-- no more logging in each time you open your browser! Log in once and you'll be good to go for a month (unless you log out, of course).
Also, there were a few days there where you didn't have to put a name or location to comment. That's been fixed now, too.
More updates on their way. Enjoy!
it almost looks like the last line of the note says
"on ter the silver plat". which makes no sense at all.
Minphx... i love the unpronouceability of your name. You're most welcome.
The note itself is interesting somewhat not really but the comment, I mean, man. You can find a banana on the street, take a picture, then say some wacky thing with it to make it on here. I think I'm going to write 5"I peed myself in the car" on a Sesame Street notepad, crinckle it up and comment, "Found it at a vintage store in the pocket of a Michael Jackson red jacket". EEWHOAHAHO! I'm a jerk. But am I wrong? I liked the rapper paper two days ago...
Just today at our mandatory work meeting, I was told I could no longer take power naps on top of the counter in the break room.
Heeey Chrome Toaster!! Welcome back! We've missed you! (We've also mist you, which is what I typed first.)
Thanks, Orinoco! Just don't mist too close, mind you, for risk of electrical shock.
And Jason, do we still have to be IN?
guess so.
"They were enjoying the crumbs on the silver platter."
All meaning aside, doesn't that just have a lovely ring to it? It sounds so poetic! If I presented this found to my poetry class, they would go NUTS over it!
@Alice: I have to agree. It is poetry with a postmodern edge:
In your breakroom
you have ants
I got the ones I saw
but I am sure there are more.
They were enjoying
the crumbs on the silver platter.
it's poignant, with a tinge of disaffected remorse, don't you think? There is something strangely nihilistic about it...
I had a friend once named Slover (I don't think I ever even knew his first name) so Slover platter brought back some funtime memories! Thanks, Foundmagazine!
Ants in your breakroom
I got the ones enjoying
Silver platter crumbs.
Why would you leave a note for everyone?
And exactly who is you?
It makes me suspect that by leaving the note and not just going to management of some sort, she was not familiar with who "you" might have been and therefor should not be in the breakroom with the silver platter. "Employees only lady, you leave our ants alone!"
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