A small American flag. I brought that one back from Flag Day in 2009; they gave them to everyone who attended. I still remember that day; I covered two stories plus the cops while substituting on a weekend shift.
A huge pair of googly eyes that someone recently added to the copy desk. They are creepily staring at me and might mysteriously disappear someday when no one except Scoop is watching.
A broken Donald Trump Chia Pet. It came that way in the box. There’s also an intact Hillary Clinton Chia Pet, but neither of them has ever sprouted.
A model of a human skull wearing a court jester’s hat, complete with the jingle bells. I was sort of afraid to ask about this one.
A half bottle of Scotch, the size that you might get served on an airplane. Since we don’t allow drinking on the job, I hope the top half of it just evaporated. But I think of it as a nod to the old days when editors allegedly kept a bottle of bourbon in the bottom drawer of their desk. (I’m too young to remember those days.) UPDATE: Jessica says former staffer John Hill gave it to her with half of it consumed. That makes sense, as John’s grandad once owned a paper in Eastern Washington and he feels newspapering deeply.
A California Raisin. Do you remember them? Back in the day when the singing and dancing raisins were the thing, newsrooms used to get a lot of unsolicited knickknacks from publicists. I suspect this is how the raisin got here.
A lemon yellow foam brain. I think it is one of those things meant to be squeezed as stress relievers. I used to have a red foam heart with our wellness provider’s name on it, but I had to throw it away when it began to disintegrate after a good 10 years.
I’ll end by remembering some things that I used to see all over the newsroom when I started freelancing here 30 years ago: Telephone books. Ashtrays. Typewriters. Pica poles. Proportion wheels. “Non-repro blue” felt pens. And, finally, the little plastic containers that held Kodak Tri-X Pan film.