Strange, funny, and WTF? episodes of everyday serendipity
I found a couple of letters written in Japanese from the 1800s in a library book at UNR which hadn’t been opened since the letters were left there. Lesley Elizabeth Cohen
While I was hiking the Toiyabe Crest Trail two years ago, a mesquite tree snagged my favorite commemorative bandana and pulled it out of my pocket. Days later, on the way back to the car, I spotted it, still sitting
there in the tree! Heidi Kyser
I found a very old rusted tobacco tin in Calico Basin under a rock. Inside of it there was half a mining claim. Apparently, this was a way to protect yourself from your partner stealing the mining claim — you each got half and it could only be filed when you were together. Pauline Van
Betten
A fat, black, possibly hot .357 Magnum. Adam Russell When my grandparents had a ranch house where the current McCarran parking
garage is, we would find cow skulls, horse skulls, Western-looking bottles, wagon wheels. Sean Jones
A fat, black, possibly hot .357 Magnum. Adam Russell
When my grandparents had a ranch house where the current McCarran parking garage is, we would find cow skulls, horse skulls, Western-looking
bottles, wagon wheels. Sean Jones
Once on assignment in Searchlight, I was interviewing a woman at her antique shop. At the end of our chat, I asked her if she ever knew my great great uncle, who used to run a cattle ranch in the area. She disappeared
into the back and came out with my great great Uncle Eb’s branding
iron, which I immediately bought. Henry Brean
Our flashing neon Nativity box is one of the most unusual thrift-store fi nds I have ever encountered. My then 5-year-old found it at Deseret Industries.
It wasn’t until we got it home and put the batteries in that we learned it played the opposite of Silent Night. Ginger Meurer
On the shore of Lake Mead, I found a discarded broken smoke detector ... with an extremely tiny dying bat inside. Despite my efforts, it did die. According to people who know about these things, it was a relatively
rare kind of Mexican bat, so its journey/life path was something a bit
remarkable. I used a soft, slightly moist towel to shelter it, but it died like
a black piece of weird orchid that had traveled as far as it could. Perhaps the mother is still on the strange wing. Kris Saknussemm
I found a gram of cocaine in a Valley Bank bathroom downtown (in 1983). I got lots of work done that afternoon. John Curtas
I’m always amused to find abandoned jet skis and boats in the desert.
F. Andrew Taylor
Once, on a visit to Mount Charleston, I found a stone shaped like a perfect heart. I carried that stone while staying on the mountain, but left it to spread love after I left. Mary Manning
In 2011, my dad passed away. Mom immediately wanted all his stuff donated. While rifling through it all, I found my own birth certificate. (I was
adopted.) The original. I waited 47 years to learn ... wow. Lisa Ledl Yalich
We found a vintage Armani tie in a sofa we bought at the Salvation Army as-is yard — sold the tie at Buffalo Exchange for more money than we paid for the couch. Elicia Aslin
I found a vial of mercury in my uncle’s room when I was about 8. My cousin and I would sneak it out when he wasn’t around and play with it for hours. No gloves. No hand-washing. Just sheer toxic ’80s fun. Angie Negrete-Markle
I found a dog corpse in a gutter in 10th grade. I took the skull
home and cleaned it up and later used it on my guitar’s headstock
in my Misfits cover band. Brian Garth
I found my great-grandmother’s journal from 1910, and in it she had written
and brilliant and cynical poem about men. Kristy Totten
