So last week in the Very Personal Ads I asked for bobble-whatzits and didn’t describe what they were very well.

Here is a PICTURE of what I mean:

Apparently, as it turns out, regular people call these placecard holders. That’s cool. Good to know!

Here’s the thing. I need a bunch of these for the Playground, and I was hoping you might have some.

And that if you have some that you do not need, that you could send them our way.

Especially if they are cute, colorful, childlike or otherwise sweet and creative.

But Havi, what are you going to do with all these bobble-whatzits?

There are a few things I have in mind.

Punch cards!

The Playground can be, among the many other mysterious shapes it takes, something of a hippie socialist cooperative.

If dishes need to be done, someone does them. If trash needs taking out, someone takes it out.

(The EXCEPTION to this: if your pattern is to be the person who always does the dishes or takes out the trash, you need to consciously not do these things. That’s because the Playground is all about lovingly noticing and interacting with patterns.)

Anyway, as part of this… we share punch cards.

For coffees and tea and books and grilled cheese sandwiches. We have punch cards from nearly every place in the neighborhood.

And these live in the bobble-whatzits. Say you’re rallying it up at Rally (Rally!) and you go out for a coffee: you take the card, get it punched — punch! — and bring it back.

Eventually someone gets a free coffee or a free grilled cheese sandwich or a free children’s book, and then they adore you forever. Even if they don’t know who you are. It’s good.

Announcements and notices.

Lots of things around the Playground could use some little descriptors.

Like the pink fairy door. Or one of the creative outlets (it’s a regular outlet but extra creative). Shuki the plant. The camel that Taylor gave us.

If we had more bobble-whatzits, we could put up little signs. I love signs.

In the Toy Shop.

As noted in the Toy Shop discussion, pretty much everything already has a price tag.

But there are some things that we can’t put price tags on because it doesn’t work.

For example, you can’t put a price tag on a pouncer. There is no way to do it. If you saw a pouncer, you would understand. There isn’t a way to stick something to a pouncer or tie something to a pouncer.

Unless you hid it in its mouth. But the thing with pouncers is, they don’t really like that.

We could cluster pouncers together and put up bobble-whatzit signs with the pouncer prices!

Same for the stone skipping card sets (password: elevate).

In the Galley.

Little signs for the tea and for the recycling and for the gnome that is secretly a bottle-opener.

Bobble-whatzits!

And maybe for actual placecards during the Halloween Party that’s happening during the Crossing the Line 8 Day Voyage. Or for the Great Ducking Out Running-Away-From-Thanksgiving picnic feast.

And probably for other things that I haven’t even thought of yet.

The point is: we are looking for them.

So: if you have bobble-whatzits (or placecard-holders) that you could send us, that would be hugely, hugely appreciated.

Here’s our mailing address:

The Fluent Self, Inc
1526 NE Alberta Street #218
Portland, OR 97211
United States

Or: if you found some cute ones online that you think I should buy, send me the link. Especially if someone you know makes them.

Thank you! And play with me…

You can invent other uses for bobble-whatzits with me…

Or names. Since we definitely need to call them something else. Or find a useful metaphor.

You can say HOORAY for the Playground and for all the changes we are making there (big redecorating in progress).

Celebration appreciated.