Milk Eggs Vodka

Milk Eggs Vodka

“Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found” By Bill Keaggy. HOW Books, 2007.

What an idea for a book! This falls into the category of, why didn't I come up with this first? The book came out in 2007, but I've only just come across it recently. Bill Keaggy, from St. Louis and a collector of odd things, compiled his collection of lists people have thrown out and turned them into a short book. Grocery lists mostly, but just whatever scraps of writings that have been discarded by unwary people, form a sort of sociological excavation that he gleefully examines. He briefly explores the history of list-making and reveals that the oldest grocery list can be traced back to a Roman Fort in England around A.D. 80. This list included these items - pork, bread, wine, and oil - all eerily similar to any modern day grocery list! Most of the book, though, is simply Keaggy riffing lists that he picks up and trying to extrapolate the lives of the list-makers. Sometimes these riffs are clever, sometimes just silly, but pretty entertaining all around, as the samples on his website demonstrate. The actual lists are scanned and presented on each page with his speculations about them. He notes that people are possessive of their lists and will go out of their way to conceal them. And when you think of it, shopping lists, errand lists, etc., are very personal little windows into people's lives. I tend to destroy my lists too, being careful never to leave them behind in a grocery cart, but it never occurred to me why I do this. Apparently, I'm not alone!