The very delightful Kamila at electric_bath sent me a photo of the contents of her purse. The girl at Oxford--- I may call her Glencora, a reference I hope she'll like ---wrote later last night with her own Purse List. I'd still Purse/Backpack Lists from other lovely readers and correspondents--- e.g., Ms. cataplexis, Lissy at emigree, Liz V. at nightmareteeth, Jill at dehumidifier and both Stella and Caitlin at stelladellasera and kissmecaitlin. And I suppose I should at least do my own Briefcase List...

I've carried a little black canvas Land's End briefcase pretty much every day for the last five years. I have two identical ones still in boxes in my closet. I may well add a third. The plan is never to be without one. It's been a vur' good companion to me: classrooms, courtrooms, seminar rooms, libraries, there under my barstool at the Zeppelin Pilots' Club, propped on the opposite chair at a coffeeshop table. And my Briefcase List on a summer's evening would be:

--Nokia keitai and charger

--Moleskine in protective ziploc freezer bag

--Selection of Pilot G-2 pens, all in XF point (black, green, purple, blue)

--Random XF point pens and markers

--Various bookmarks from local library

--Business card holder

--1920s stainless steel Russian cigarette case with cigarillos

--Art Deco lighter, box of matches from Zeppelin Pilots' Club

--Protective ziploc bag with selection of OTC sinus and allergy pills

--Checkbook

--Lama Li travel journal in small size

--Copy of Haruki Murakami, "Hard-Boiled Wonderland"

--Sandisk 2gb flash drive

--Random letters

--Extra reading glasses in hard case

--Leatherman Squirt P-4 multi-tool (grey)

Nothing exciting, really. And of course there'll always be two dead give-aways for a boy raised in the Deepest South there in my pockets: handkerchief and comb in right-hand back pocket, small pocket knife (Gerber LST UltraLight) in left-hand front pocket. I don't carry change, though I'm fanatical about amassing quarters--- something any apartment-dweller knows all about. Quarters are for the laundry room. One never, never spends them. My wallet, for what it's worth, is simple black nylon. I bought half a dozen of them at a military-surplus store years ago at $1.99 each. All black, all identical. I still have three. No one was surprised. My friends remembered that my bedroom closet is filled with identical French blue oxford-cloth buttondown.

Little Eva-Grace used to say that she always had a little silvery rescue blanket in her backpack, as well as one of those little tools paramedics use to break car window glass. Life in Ohio may just be slightly stranger than I'd have thought.

The Nokia keitai is probably a generation or so behind the curve, and I do have my eye on something by Samsung, or maybe a BlackBerry Pearl in black. But my keitai has been with me for two years, and it does everything I need: phone calls, text messages, receiving picture messages. I've never really needed a camera phone, and the Nokia came free with my calling plan. It'll be with me for a while.

Nothing terribly exciting. I have what I need for a usual day: take notes, write in paper journal, read, keep my keitai charged. I'll be adding the 80gb iPod Classic and a charger to the briefcase this weekend. My iPod has something like two days' worth of music loaded. Nothing quite like Lissy, who has filled one completely, but enough to get me through afternoons at the coffeeshop. I have a car charger for my keitai, and I suppose I'll get one for the iPod, too.

Caitlin at kissmecaitlin and I both like the vur' small Leatherman multi-tools, though I remain attached to the classic Gerber Multi-Plier in black as a larger multi-tool. I'm not good at very many mechanical things--- certainly not like Umi at ivich or Bombasine at D-Land, both of whom carry small computer tool kits in backpacks ---but I'm male enough to find gadgetry really intriguing. I may not be much good with it, but I...find it all vur' alluring.

Ms. cataplexis and Liz V. at nightmareteeth and Ms. ninjastyle all agree that Massive Attack's "Mezzanine" is a major Sex Music CD. So I do have one coming from Amazon, along with a copy of their "100th Window". I'll listen and see. And see if I can find that song with the Sinead O' Connor vocals.

A question of Ms. ninjastyle's: yes, I do love This Mortal Coil. "Song to the Siren" is an old, old favourite of mine. (And it's a song quoted in Douglas Winter's "Less Than Zombie"--- a story seriously worth your while to track down). And a question of my own: who out there remembers Legendary Pink Dots and/or Edward Ka-Spel?

So...a Wednesday night on a July day in the Year Eight. My elder niece had a birthday yesterday. And 29 July was Caterina's birthday, too. I should send her a belated greeting there at her office in New Haven.

Early Aphex Twin is playing there behind me. I'm drinking iced shochu with lime. It'll be a quiet night here.

But I do hope for more Lists from lovely readers and correspondents...