English

1. Find (v)
a find (n)
findings (n)
Find (pres) – found (past) – found (past participle)
a finder (n)
“Finders keeper, losers weepers.”
a foundling (n)
a found item/object
a founder(n)

2. F o u n d

4. F o u n d started off as a magazine, later becoming a book as well
as a website.
The idea behind F o u n d came from a note Davy Rothbart found on
his windshield late one snowy night in Chicago. The note
obviously wasn’t meant for Rothbart, but as he had always
collected photos, notes, letters and other stuff he found on the
ground since school age, it seemed time to put all of these finds
into a magazine. A few months later he put out flyers asking
people to contribute to his magazine. At first there seemed little
interest in his idea, but as the months went by, he received more
and more found stuff from all over the world. It turns out there are
many other people who are also fascinated by the private lives of
others, and the form these revelations take.

5. Here’s what Rothbart says about his love of
found stuff:
“Suddenly we feel connected to this person
we’ve never met before and probably never
will, and in turn, to all people. “
On the next slide you can see 5 more Rothbart quotes. Complete
the gaps in the sentences.

6. Quotes:
1.“I ask people to name their finds, just as they would name a painting or song they’d
written. Picking a note up from the ground - something that everyone else has walked
past and seen as rubbish – seems to be an equally noble act of c________________ .”
2.“I like pavements and b_________________, all kinds of public transport, school
playgrounds, recycling bins and university computer centres.”
3.“Four out of five notes you pick up might not be anything too interesting, but that fifth
one will always be a g ________.”
4.“I start listening to conversations between strangers, gazing at people’s faces… my
day is far richer for having deeply experienced my s __________________ .”
5.“Some finds feel incomplete; they hint at a story but withhold important
d __________ .”
You’re now going to see some examples of found stuff that Rothbart has
included in his book.

15. PEN CAP FOR SALE 35Ç
It’s not like I need the money, or anything like that, but I know there
has to be a niche market for the supply of lone pen caps. Think
about it. They’re all over the place; at the bottom of your bag,
inside a drawer, on the floor under your bed, thrown in a bin at the
end of class... You name it, there’s a pen cap lurking somewhere.
But what happened to these lonesome items? After all, their more
wanted counterparts, pens, are still being used, still needed, still
wanted. All I know is that they should be together, but somehow
got separated along the way.

16. So, here’s where I come in. As a collector and some would say a
freak, I pick up those pen caps that others seem to have lost, or
misplaced, or just couldn’t be bothered to put back on the pen they
were just using, and then I save them. I now have about 300 in blue,
black, red and green, although not too many of the latter. I have to
admit that a whole load of pen caps have limited interest, even for me.
It would seem that my mom agrees with me, which is why I caught her
trying to throw the lot of them away one day. Once rescued from the
trash, I came to the conclusion that the only way to ‘save’ my pen caps
and put them to good use, all at the same time, was to sell them to
pen-owning individuals who don’t want ink stains on their clothes,
inside their bags or on their fingers. Believe it or not, people actually
buy them when the need occurs. That, or they feel sorry for me. Like I
said, I don’t need the money.

17. Although, you are probably wondering by now
what I’m going to do with my earnings. Well, not a lot
so far, as I’ve only made 2 or 3 dolIars. But who
knows, I might even give the proceeds to charity. All
of this reminds me of how I once read a quote saying
that “If we lose a pen, we can buy a new one but if
we lose a pen cap, we can't buy it.....so love
friends... because all dhakkans are important.”
Dhakkans is Urdu, by the way, and it means bottle
caps. Ok, so they’re not pen caps, but you get the
idea.
Story by SCR

18. Created by Mariona Pujol and Paula Rayo

19. Task: Choose one of the found items shown before and think
about what might have happened. Who wrote it and why?
Who was it for? What was the outcome?
Choose one of the following ways to explain your ideas:
 Write a short story in either 1st or 3rd person to accompany the
found item.
 Write a dialogue between the participants connected with the
found item.
 Create a comic strip exploring an aspect of the story connected
with the found item.
 Write a text hypothesising about what events might have led up
to the found item being written.
Note: If you prefer, you can go to http://foundmagazine.com/ to look for an alternative item.

28. Pulsar – “Found this in my high
school Bio class. I don’t even
know what to say.” (anon.)
17/10/17.