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January 19, 2007 |
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I Not Stole Your Box
FOUND by Sarah Beach
in San Francisco, California
We came back from holiday and this note was on our doorstep in a bag of opened gifts someone had sent us. Obviously they were so taken by the box they had to see what was inside.
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The Morning After November 28, 2006 |
George March 16, 2007 |
Hello Sunshine February 18, 2007 |
That Box June 15, 2005 |
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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...
» The BBC's Jamillah Knowles mixes it up with the FOUND crew after a show in London (starts 1/3 of the way through)!
» We're hopping on a plane and jetting to Europe for our Fall 2008 Euro Tour!
That's just bizarre.
Wow.
They no see box before?
At least they left a note and didn't steal anything.
It's kinda cute, actually. In that, childlike/doesn't know any better kind of way.
So, did you e-mail and tell him it was okay?
Wow, that's really creepy and touching at the same time!
This is pretty much the most charming note I've ever seen!
Did you write e-mail let him (or her) know?
This one resembles an episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants!! Patrick must have written this FOUND! Lol :)
Gosh, who would do that? I'd say it is still stealing, not just nosiness.
I think that is just funny because the person says that they didnt steal the box
The letter reminds me of a letter in one of
Sherlock Holmes stories. He would have deduced that the person was quite intelligent but trying to hide the fact with bad spelling. The use of exclamation and question marks and the way 'and' is shown. Grammatic layout would suggest that the person is, or knows the language of a non-English European country. Not returning an e-mail to this person would have increaced their, already bad, feelings of guilt.
Such neat handwriting , such terrible grammar . And so cheerful too ! I just wonder if this person talks this way .. it's sooo backwards .
LOVE it! So funny. The perfect find!
God bless! smile!! thank you.
wow it kinda makes me wonder what was in that box!
Yes , I think this is so cute too . I would send this person a box of presents !
So that's how Pandora's Box got opened...
I can't wait for next christmas so I can wish people a "Merry happy Christmas Holiday"! Yesss!
Power yes it is in the box. Power yes it is of the universe. You must the box use, friend. Use the box! Use the box!
I agree with 6 in England (6? Did you date Ed in Monster Magnet years ago?) that this seems a little contrived... as if a native English-speaking someone is pretending to have this pseudo-eastern-European accent, as most people who struggle to speak another language correctly tend to WRITE in a more grammatically-correct way. This is charming but I feel it's a little too "moose and squirrel" to be authentic.
Me so many happys about Found foundings. Welcome to Bizzarro world! Any minute now Mr. Mxyzptlk is going to pop in. You got to respect the irresistable pull of the unopened box. What was "W" doing in S.F. on 12/23/05 he should have been in Crawford or DC.
I'm gonna go ahead and guess Korean, from the handwriting. So capricious, those Koreans.
merry happy christmas holiday!
And, what happened to Hannukah!?!? As a part-Jew, I am hereby protesting this find. Shame on you, Found magazine.
I disagree with 6 and klutch. I had a French teacher in grade nine that was just learning English and she kind of talked like this and she when she wrote she didn't use any better grammar.
Bad grammar overload!
I got an Asian vibe, too. Maybe a Japanese Happy Happy Fun Time! kinda vibe.
sooo....what was in the box?!?!
Bad Girl, who cares that this find wasn't about hannukah? Whoever wrote this wasn't concerned with being politically correct, it was obvious what he took was a CHRISTMAS present.
call the cops
Plus, you'd think a part-Jew would know it's "Hanukkah", not "Hannukah".
The combination of the childlike handwriting and the "Happy Merry Christmas Holiday," as well as the exclamation points, leads me to believe this is a young Asian woman who is studying English. It reminds me a lot of my Vietnamese roommate.
I totally agree that this is an Asian-American. My little step sister writes just like this, but speaks great English, this is from an email she sent me:
"DID U HV A NICE AND SWEET CHRISTMAS?
I LOVE YOU TONNES!!!
AND WISH YOU HAPPY EVERY DAY!!
AND YOU HAVE TO MISS ME TOO!!"
I think this find is sweet. I don't think the person is trying to be creepy and is being sincere even though it's not customary to be going through someone else's stuff.
I know someone who is from Russia. She writes broken English as she speaks it and is always apologizing for it. It doesn't bother me. I know she is trying. I imagine I would be write and speak "incorrectly" if I were trying to learn another language.
Merry Happy Christmas Holiday!
Holly, your sister has a head-start. She knows the correct spelling of 'tonnes'.
I hope you're keeping up your part of the deal. :D
Clearly a person who had childlike curiousity and lack of manners. I'd be ticked off, but I would appreciate the sweet note.
Clearly also a person who's first language is NOT English...I would email the person and thank them for their honesty. OMG- how much better would our world be with more of such honesty??
I've studied sign language now for 2 years, and I immediately thought the person who wrote this was deaf. They do not sign exact English, for the most part. If you were to sign this it would make a lot more sense. I can give a better translation if the message is not clear.
I am totally keeping up my part of the bargain :)
Ha!Ha! What a cute little Chinglish note.
I agree with Kim - definitely appears to be written by someone who is deaf.
Kwin, I agree, except you've got to say, "Merry Happy Chrismas Hoilday!
Hoilday! hee!
This find was freakin' sweet!!! I wish I could trade some of myneighbors for one like this. The body of the note reminded my of my Latvian great-uncle, but the "Merry Happy Christmas Holiday!" did sound more Asian. Where ever it is they were from, they are adorable.
Its not always enough merely to think out of the box.
And depending on what was in the box.... I would say these are the guileless footprints of the noble savage,
"Zadig"
Yes, I'm quite convinced.
Definitely - Do. Not. Email.
Smoke signals.....try smoke signals.
Why not?
I have Japanese penfriends and this is not only how they write but a lot of the letters seem to be formed the same way - particularly the r's. So, I vote Japanese.
I am Deaf/Hard of Hearing and this note looks like it was written by a Deaf person. I read all the comments and noticed at least two other people also thought the same, having had studied ASL and knowing that Deaf people don't sign in spoken eglish when using ASL. :)
i just started sign language classes 3 weeks ago and immediately thought it must be a Deaf person. the sentence structure of the Deaf is much more simplified-get the point across-forget all the extra bullshit words!! awesome find and interesting that someone couldn't resist the lure of an unwrapped gift, even if it wasn't for them.
Caramaena, I write my r's like that, and I am very much not Japanese.
The grammar in this letter is so poor that I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the writer is trying to say...
We had Japanese exchange students when I was growing up.
They all wrote notes that looked like these...beautiful printing, horrible grammar.
I opened and rifled through your personal posessions - Happy merry Christmas Holiday!
I'd also guess the person is Asian of some kind since the grammatical structures of these languages are very different. For example, I knew a Korean girl in graduate school that had been in the US for 5 years and still wrote like this (and I'd have figure out what she was saying in her papers and help her fix them).
I betting on Chinese (of some kind) as the original language just because 1/2 of the people in San Francisco speak Chinese. Though there are fair numbers of Russians. I know very few European-language speakers that have this much trouble with English sentence structure and grammar.
I agree with Scott. Most European languages have a similar grammar to English, since a lot of them stem from the same linguistic tree. I think this was written by a Korean woman, because she says: "God bless!" -- christianity is more common in Korea than China I think...
was the email address scratched out like that on the original? because sarah used a green block to cover up her name (which is pretty silly actually if the block is covering up 'sarah') but the email address looks like it's scratched out on the actual note. i wonder why the person changed their mind?
if the email address is on the note itself, it might give a clue to nationality (name, domain, etc)
yes, this is obviously written by a deaf person. the grammar is a dead give-away, as is the word "smile."
cute note. glad nothing was taken! :)
>>Rebecca in Cleveland wrote:
Bad Girl, who cares that this find wasn't about hannukah? Whoever wrote this wasn't concerned with being politically correct, it was obvious what he took was a CHRISTMAS present.<<
Rebecca, I'm pretty sure Bad Girl was just being funny... And there's no correct spelling of "Hanukka" "Chanukkah" "Chanuka" "Hannuka" because the word is not in English anyway :) We all spell it differently! (For example: in South America, it's Januca).
Since the note seems to be written in "lolcat," I'm guessing the box-opener was the family pet.
This reminds me of Viklas!!! http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail43.html
This note was probably written by someone who is deaf, my best friends mom is deaf, and she writes almost identical to this. She also puts "Smile" a lot too. :D
This was such a sweet note. Maybe i dont hate people after all.
Maybe this should have been posted on Engrish.com instead?
HAHAHA VIKLAS!!!! I love those strong bad emails. I watched that and I laughed so hard that I cried haha. my stomach hurts =0[