[Update: Here's the recap post.]

Yes, on Thursday, July 1, 2010, I am going to be on the freakin’ Jimmy Kimmel Live show. Here’s the episode summary from TV.com: “Actress Dakota Fanning; grocery list collector Bill Keaggy; Korn performs.” That’s the ABC network. Check listings for the time in your area.

So. Yeah. Weird. We’ll be talking about other people’s grocery lists — as seen here at grocerylists.org and in the “Milk Eggs Vodka” book. What else is there to say? Watch it! Let me know if I look nervous!

• Here’s the proof on TV.com
• More info on STLtoday.com
• The web site that started it all (you’re there right now)
• The book on Amazon

It came about because of my spot in “The Curators,” a documentary film project by the always awesome Coudal Parters out of Chicago.

Watch Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday, July 1!

The economic downturn has taken its toll on traditional museums with cutbacks and closings, but one corner of the collecting world is flourishing.

Virtual museums, just a few years ago seen as a curiosity, are gaining legitimacy as collectors open online galleries to share their passions.

Cereal box covers. Matchbook designs. Grocery lists. Record album covers. Motel signs. Prison escape tools. Toothpaste. Stewardess uniforms.

Whatever the obsession, the Internet has provided a limitless digital curio cabinet for sophisticated and novice collectors alike…

The Museum of Online Museums, a Web site created by Chicago design firm Coudal Partners, does its best to track online museums and serve as a gateway. The firm has collected about 1,200 links and puts up about 150 to 200 links at a time on its Web site, rotating the galleries quarterly. The firm has produced a video about online museums called “The Curators” due out this spring.

Last summer I was interviewed by Coudal Partners for that upcoming Museum of Online Museums documentary. Check out this preview clip. Awesome! I love how the YouTube video ID starts with “aSS.” Perfect.

Update: The film has been posted! Embedded below is the Part 1 with me. Watch Parts 2 and 3 to learn about Brian Collier’s Very Small Objects and Jennifer Sharpe’s The Kriegsmann Files. Fascinating stuff. Big thanks to the Coudal crew.

The Museum of Online Museums’ “The Curators” (Part One) from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.

About this MoOMumentary: For all these years we’ve been curating the Museum of Online Museums, one persistent question has been with us from the beginning: “Why?” It’s one thing to collect stamps or coins and have some association with a like-minded community. It’s something else entirely when you’re likely the only person on the planet scouring thrift shops for Fanta bottle caps. And it takes an extra special breed to then take their one-of-a-kind collection and building a dedicated online museum to share their odd passion with the world. We’ve been enjoying and collecting these collectors’ work for so many years, but it was high time we learned some origin stories. So we hit the road, camera in hand, landing in three cities and three states, seeing three collections up-close, interviewing each curator, and asking, well, “Why?”

Oh, and here’s a bonus grocery joke.

And this highly refined individual with impeccable taste is looking for a special someone.

That is all.

Specimen #1: A completely insane apple dumpling recipe
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/02/apple_dumplings/
I made these New Year’s Eve. Even though I had some champagne that night, I ended up having a butter hangover instead. Awesome. Photo above ©Ree Drummond (Via Fluid Pudding)

Specimen #2: Match & Munch Sandwich Cutters (Set of 4 Puzzle Shapes)
http://www.spoonsisters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=100&Product_Code=67401
Even though I hate to encourage the cutting off of crusts, these sandwich slicers are pretty cool.

Specimen #3: 7 Foods That Should Never Cross Your Lips
http://www.prevention.com/7foodsthatshouldnever/
Is your food loaded with toxins and chemicals? Prevention magazine has some simple swaps to protect yourself.

Specimen #4: Salinger Grocery Lists to be Published
http://glossynews.com/entertainment/books-newspapers-misc/201001291226/salinger-grocery-lists-to-be-published/
Well, not everyone can be The Onion, but this might give you a chuckle.

Specimen #5: Tacos Exploding In Slow Motion
http://www.youtube.com/v/uyKFKdAREcE
You’re welcome.

Specimen #6: A Collection a Day, 2010
http://collectionaday2010.blogspot.com/
This is just fantastic.

Specimen #7: Hunt for shop nut who smelled staff member’s bum
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2779253/Hunt-for-shop-nut-who-smelled-staff-members-bum.html
I’m about as opposed to The Sun newspaper as I am cutting the crusts off sandwiches, but how can you pass on this story?

That is all.

There is nothing more satisfying than creating a grocery list.

It’s not only fulfilling your needs (what you’ve run out of, saving money by buying what’s on sale), it also allows you to compose meals based on mood, time, energy, availability and choice.

Perhaps it starts with beef tenderloins and then you think that shiitake mushrooms, wild rice and red wine would be nice accompaniments.

Better add those to the list.

Then you realize you’d better get some fresh garlic too. The last time you bought some was during the Johnson administration.

Or maybe you’ve always wanted to make Penne a la Vodka and now that you’ve finished that great big report, you’re going to treat yourself to a night of cooking at the stove, maybe eat it on the couch while watching a movie you’d be embarrassed to tell someone about. Something with Kate Hudson or Matthew Perry, perhaps.

Then there’s the addition of the items that you can’t resist. If you’re my mom, it’ll be chocolate on sale or maybe even fudge. For some people it’s ice cream or potato chips, for others its carbs and microwaveable dinners, a pricier bottle of wine or a new book or CD.

Adding these otherwise verboten items to your list is like giving yourself a little reward for a tough week at work or finally finishing cleaning out the garage.

My list of indulgences includes pickles, fancy salad dressing, a new cleaning product (so sad, isn’t it?), or a pack of pens, notebook or stickers. Apparently I’m 12.

Obviously, as the book Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found attests to, your list says a lot about you. Do you put everything on one list — tires, grapefruit juice, nail polish, boating license — or do you compartmentalize it like so?

• Groceries
• Errands
• Hardware
• Drugstore

I always have to categorize mine. I walk almost everywhere so I need to know what I’m picking up where. No way do I want to have to walk back to get something. I love the exercise, but not that much. Plus, I take my time with my list, making it out, checking it over, dreaming of new looks for our living room, meals for my fella and sometimes even fantasizing about getting a new look from head to toe, with the addition of a few, carefully selected products.

And it’s not just the contents on the list, but how you go through them. I am fascinated by those who cross off items while going through the grocery store. I want to be that fastidious. I mean, I’ve put in all of that time and effort into one list, so why should I keep going over items again and again?

But alas, despite having at least two or three pens on me at all times (a writer’s habit), I feel like crossing things off would take all the fun out of grocery shopping. It would make it into more of a task than an adventure.

And for me, heading out to get groceries is always an adventure. It’s the possibility of getting something I can’t usually afford on sale, the chance of seeing something new, and the journey of making some very ordinary ingredients into an extraordinary meal for the ones I hold dear.

Of course, should I leave my list at home, it’s closer to a disaster…

©Stephanie Dickison, 2009

Book inscriptions, grocery lists, Post-it notes — one man’s trash is truly another man’s treasure.

Particularly if that man’s trash is really weird.

For example, a dated photo that features an older woman standing proudly next to a Christmas tree – which is topped with an enormous, jeweled armadillo.

Or a shopping list that includes “Kid hair de-tangler, ibuprofen, Fibre-all, Sensodyne, Prozac.”

Or a note that says “BIND ME, please! And bring COOKIES!”

It begs the question: What happens if the person brings the wrong kind of cookies — will binding not occur? (Or will they, perhaps, be bound as punishment?) When will the cookies be eaten: before, after or during?

It’s a lot for a complete stranger to ponder.

Bill Keaggy, the founder of Grocerylists.org, was leaving a grocery store one day when a sort of “silly serendipity” struck: he found a grocery list on a yellow Post-it note. The list itself was nothing special, but much like Raviv, Keaggy found himself fixating on the person it belonged to.