Magnets

While visiting a friend recently, I noticed he had a clear plastic magnet on his doorframe.

Great setup for a story, right? I'm AMAZING with my premises.

Actually, we'll see. I might pull this off yet. Back in undergrad, my sense of humor was similar to what it is now. But in those days, my dad liked to take me to Sam's Club to buy staples. One such visit, I wanted a few magnets for my door. By this, I mean, I wanted maybe a dozen magnets of different colors. I got them. Along with maybe 500 extras that were bundled with them. I took them back to the dorm, and did nothing with them for a couple of days.

Later, after a coffee or something, I took my dozen magnets out into the hallway and put them up on my door. At about 3:00 AM. Then I laughed. I had had an idea. Taking with me about 50 of my extras, I wandered down the hall attaching them at random to various people's doors, pipes, and anything else to which they'd stick.

The next day, I heard two people asking where the free magnets came from. I played dumb.

That night, I took another 50 out and added them to the magnets already out there.

The next day, curiousity was higher, but still subdued.

Another 50.

This time, people got very interested. My favorite theory was that the magnets were being used as some kind of code to 'mark' people. (Not everyone was getting the same number or color of magnets.) Two people took to taking them off their doors and putting theirs on their neighbor's doors. One person simply took hers inside and kept them.

Another 50.

I kept this up for a week, much to the amusement, horror, dismay, and/or exasperation of my hallmates. Finally, when I ran out of extras, I let the secret slip to a couple of friends. They laughed, and passed it on.

Within hours, everyone agreed that the magnets were, and had always been, completely uninteresting.

People are funny.