Being pen fiends, we spend a lot of time talking about, practicing, looking at and sometimes making fun of handwriting.
Which is why we are delighted to recommend to you a couple of sites that will give you huge laughs about nonsensical stuff while exposing you to handwriting samples from around the world.
If you’ve ever been the recipient of a nasty missive left by an anonymous writer, then you’ll probably find PassiveAggressiveNotes.com fairly amusing.
The site collects those notes posted by cranky roommates, neighbors, co-workers, motorists and assorted other nuts venting their spleens about perceived slights and pet peeves. Visitors to the site submit the notes – either handwritten, printed, or emailed – usually with a little context to make them even funnier.
Recent entries have included:
- A backhanded compliment, complete with a hand-drawn heart, in a school yearbook.
- A bathroom reminder for men written on a feminine hygiene product.
- An irritated girl’s addendum to her little sister’s baby book.
As you might expect, the crazier the note, the worse the handwriting. And the spelling.
In a related vein, we also love FOUND Magazine, a collection of notes, lists and other handwritten epistles that people find and send in to be shared.
According to the site, the magazine got its start when:
One snowy winter night in Chicago a few years back, Davy went out to his car and found a note on his windshield – a note meant for someone else, a guy named Mario:
We loved this note – its amazing mixture of anger and hopefulness – and so we shared it with as many folks as we could. Each friend we showed the Mario and Amber note to seemed to have a few finds to show us in return; clearly we weren’t alone in our fascination with FOUND stuff! As a way for everyone to join forces and share their finds with everyone else, we decided to start a magazine called FOUND, a showcase for all the strange, hilarious and heartbreaking things people’ve picked up.
That was 10 years ago, and the magazine has been collecting ever since. Birthday cards, love letters, bookmarks, cocktail napkins, just about anything you can imagine that someone would write on.
One that always makes us laugh is a help-wanted flyer written in a scrawled hand. It offers “2 bucks” for someone willing to pick up poop, pick up trash, “rack” leaves and play with puppy. You gotta know that’s some future CEO spending part of his allowance to hire another kid to do his chores.
Another good one: Part of an index card, found inside a copy of Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.” Written on the card in green crayon was this bit of wisdom: Love is the root of estrogen.
Unfortunately, the site does not seem to be well set-up for browsing, so we suggest you use the search box on the left side of the home page to find notes grouped by subject.
So, take a few minutes to visit these sites and see if you find them as delightful as we do. Just be warned – entire afternoons can disappear before you realize it.
