(This is Not a Picnic Table) LbNA #32183 (ARCHIVED)
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Add Location| Owner: | Adoptable |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Jun 23, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Mansfield |
| County: | Bristol |
| State: | Massachusetts |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Planted by: | Mahatma Dondi  |
|---|---|
| Found by: | LisaRIcranston |
| Last found: | Sep 21, 2007 |
| Status: | FF |
| Last edited: | Jun 23, 2007 |
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Alas, the arboreal cave that enclosed the twentieth picnic table, and thus the box's hiding place, has been mowed down by a gang of hired Once-lers, like so many Truffula Trees. I scouted the spot, to see if the box was still under the asphalt slab, or nearby; but had no luck. I'm hoping (perhaps beyond all hope) that it still might yet surface, and if you happen to run across it, please email me at mahatma.dondi@yahoo.com
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(This is Not a Picnic Table)
This letterbox is an homage to Surrealist painter René Magritte, playing on his attraction to the unexpected juxtaposition and the visual non-sequitir.
Your clue is simple and straightforward: To find the letterbox, you must find the twentieth picnic table at the rest area on northbound I-95 between exits 5 and 6.
Simple, yes? Well, no. So many picnic tables! Where to start? The twentieth picnic table will be obvious, because it is the least obvious (in the strictest sense). Once you come upon it, you will know it, but the trick is making that initial encounter. To find the picnic table, and thereby the letterbox, you need to be able to see beyond the obvious, and consider the unexpected.
This is a drive-by box, a short hunt on your way to other boxes, a pit stop while traveling to places north, or a diversion before that show at the Tweeter Center. As you drive in, signs direct cars to bear left and trucks to bear right. Cars will drive past an island of juniper bushes on the right, and you can park anywhere in the row of spaces in front of the visitor center, parallel to the interstate; or you can take a right turn just past the two flagpoles, parking anywhere along the back or side of the building. Get out of your car and stretch your legs: you can only get a proper count on foot.
One hint: the twentieth picnic table is NOT that concrete skeleton, the support remnants of picnic tables one can see within the rest area proper. These once-upon-a-time-tables do not figure into the count of twenty. In my book, which is a dictionary, a table is “an article of furniture consisting of a flat, slablike top supported on one or more legs;” so the twentieth picnic table has, by definition, a top, or eating surface.
For the same reason, do not count in your tally those concrete slabs where pinic tables evidently once stood; nor should you include the smattering of tables and other pavilion remnants on the other side of the fence that separates the truck parking area from the town of Mansfield and the homes around Greenwood Lake. Only picnic tables within the current rest area grounds count; although counting picnic tables is not, precisely speaking, the way to find the letterbox. Indeed, please do not roam around the rest area looking under picnic tables, as you’re likely to arouse suspicion and worry.
As you face the twentieth picnic table, as if to sit down to a picnic, you’ll find the letterbox nestled under the asphalt to your right, or on your left if you’re looking at the table from the wrong side (in which case you’re best served to meander over to the correct side).
Once you’ve found the box, you can stamp in right there on the table; or you can take the box back to your car to stamp in during cold and/or wet weather. As this is a public rest area, with visiting travellers at all times of the day and night, please be very discreet in stamping in and re-hiding the box.
If you have trouble finding the twentieth picnic table, don’t bother asking the folks staffing the information desk inside the visitor center for help. The letterbox is outside, and was placed without visitor center staff participation. If you’re stumped, feel free to email for help.
The hand-carved stamp is a play on Magritte’s painting, “La trahison des images” or “The Treachery Of Images” (1953), which you can see in person at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; or virtually via http://www.lacma.org/art/MagritteIndex.aspx, about half-way down the page. After stamping in, PLEASE replace the box right where you found it, taking care that the box is firmly in place and hidden from sight. THANKS! We’d love to hear from you at mahatma.dondi@yahoo.com when you’ve found the picnic table.
P.S. The image accompanying the version of these clues on Atlas Quest is another painting by Magritte, entitled “La Belle Societe,” or “High Society” (1966). The painting, in conjunction with all the other clues, may help to inspire you in imagining the way to the right table.
P.P.S. This is perhaps a non-sequitir (and therefore, perhaps, entirely appropriate), and I’m not sure if parrotheads are properly surreal, Dadaist, or something entirely different, but one of the Tweeter Center’s biggest drawing acts, summer after summer, is Jimmy Buffet. (This is true even though he opted for Fenway Park in 2004, and in 2007 played Gillette Stadium). While I don’t know if he plays this song live, I've learned that Jimmy Buffet covers a Leon Russell song, “Back to the Island." I've never heard the Jimmy Buffet version, but give me Leon any day of the week.
Alas, the arboreal cave that enclosed the twentieth picnic table, and thus the box's hiding place, has been mowed down by a gang of hired Once-lers, like so many Truffula Trees. I scouted the spot, to see if the box was still under the asphalt slab, or nearby; but had no luck. I'm hoping (perhaps beyond all hope) that it still might yet surface, and if you happen to run across it, please email me at mahatma.dondi@yahoo.com
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
(This is Not a Picnic Table)
This letterbox is an homage to Surrealist painter René Magritte, playing on his attraction to the unexpected juxtaposition and the visual non-sequitir.
Your clue is simple and straightforward: To find the letterbox, you must find the twentieth picnic table at the rest area on northbound I-95 between exits 5 and 6.
Simple, yes? Well, no. So many picnic tables! Where to start? The twentieth picnic table will be obvious, because it is the least obvious (in the strictest sense). Once you come upon it, you will know it, but the trick is making that initial encounter. To find the picnic table, and thereby the letterbox, you need to be able to see beyond the obvious, and consider the unexpected.
This is a drive-by box, a short hunt on your way to other boxes, a pit stop while traveling to places north, or a diversion before that show at the Tweeter Center. As you drive in, signs direct cars to bear left and trucks to bear right. Cars will drive past an island of juniper bushes on the right, and you can park anywhere in the row of spaces in front of the visitor center, parallel to the interstate; or you can take a right turn just past the two flagpoles, parking anywhere along the back or side of the building. Get out of your car and stretch your legs: you can only get a proper count on foot.
One hint: the twentieth picnic table is NOT that concrete skeleton, the support remnants of picnic tables one can see within the rest area proper. These once-upon-a-time-tables do not figure into the count of twenty. In my book, which is a dictionary, a table is “an article of furniture consisting of a flat, slablike top supported on one or more legs;” so the twentieth picnic table has, by definition, a top, or eating surface.
For the same reason, do not count in your tally those concrete slabs where pinic tables evidently once stood; nor should you include the smattering of tables and other pavilion remnants on the other side of the fence that separates the truck parking area from the town of Mansfield and the homes around Greenwood Lake. Only picnic tables within the current rest area grounds count; although counting picnic tables is not, precisely speaking, the way to find the letterbox. Indeed, please do not roam around the rest area looking under picnic tables, as you’re likely to arouse suspicion and worry.
As you face the twentieth picnic table, as if to sit down to a picnic, you’ll find the letterbox nestled under the asphalt to your right, or on your left if you’re looking at the table from the wrong side (in which case you’re best served to meander over to the correct side).
Once you’ve found the box, you can stamp in right there on the table; or you can take the box back to your car to stamp in during cold and/or wet weather. As this is a public rest area, with visiting travellers at all times of the day and night, please be very discreet in stamping in and re-hiding the box.
If you have trouble finding the twentieth picnic table, don’t bother asking the folks staffing the information desk inside the visitor center for help. The letterbox is outside, and was placed without visitor center staff participation. If you’re stumped, feel free to email for help.
The hand-carved stamp is a play on Magritte’s painting, “La trahison des images” or “The Treachery Of Images” (1953), which you can see in person at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; or virtually via http://www.lacma.org/art/MagritteIndex.aspx, about half-way down the page. After stamping in, PLEASE replace the box right where you found it, taking care that the box is firmly in place and hidden from sight. THANKS! We’d love to hear from you at mahatma.dondi@yahoo.com when you’ve found the picnic table.
P.S. The image accompanying the version of these clues on Atlas Quest is another painting by Magritte, entitled “La Belle Societe,” or “High Society” (1966). The painting, in conjunction with all the other clues, may help to inspire you in imagining the way to the right table.
P.P.S. This is perhaps a non-sequitir (and therefore, perhaps, entirely appropriate), and I’m not sure if parrotheads are properly surreal, Dadaist, or something entirely different, but one of the Tweeter Center’s biggest drawing acts, summer after summer, is Jimmy Buffet. (This is true even though he opted for Fenway Park in 2004, and in 2007 played Gillette Stadium). While I don’t know if he plays this song live, I've learned that Jimmy Buffet covers a Leon Russell song, “Back to the Island." I've never heard the Jimmy Buffet version, but give me Leon any day of the week.