The Needle and the Damage Done

You've got me on that one. If we have them, I don't know about it.

Those are probably racier styles than what you're showing on the runway.

A page from Keaggy’s book

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Probably.

Will you be modeling?

No. I'll be emceeing.

Lest We Forget

In 1997 Bill Keaggy discovered a discarded grocery list in a south-city Schnucks. Ten years later, Keaggy has published his first-ever book, Milk Eggs Vodka, documenting some of the 1,700 grocery lists he has collected since. Last week Keaggy took time off from his day job as a photo editor for the Post-Dispatchto discuss the book.

Unreal: OK, first question: Why?

Bill Keaggy: It started small. I found that first list and thought it offered a little peek into the life of whoever left it. By 1999 I had about 30 different lists that I'd found and made a Web site (www.grocerylists .org). People started sending me lists from all over. You know how the Internet is — once people find something stupid, they want to be part of it.

Are grocery lists windows into our souls, or our stomachs?

I think a little bit of both. I don't want to be too philosophical about it, but I think they do offer a glimpse into private lives. You can tell if someone has health problems by what they purchase, or if they're planning a party and are happy. That said, the book is not intended to be an academic treatise on the deeper meaning of grocery lists. I just think there is a certain entertainment value in this type of trash.

The index lists five alternate spellings for yogurt: yougart, yohurt, yoguret, yogert, yogart. Before beginning this project, did you have any idea people were such atrocious spellers?

No. It's kind of scary. At first I was amused by the spelling mistakes, but deep down it's sad. Of course, that doesn't stop me from making fun of the list makers in my book.

What's next? A book on spam e-mail? Maybe a compilation of waitresses' order pads?

I don't know. I'm working on a portfolio of photos of "sad chairs" that I've found abandoned in alleyways and fields. But right now I'm just trying to get through this. Can you believe that I have twenty radio interviews set up this week to discuss the grocery lists?