  Mystery
This week: Searching for Answers Edited by: Jeff  
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
-- Carl Sagan
Random Mystery Trivia of the Week: Michael Mallory primarily writes on the subjects of animation and post-war pop culture (including books about Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Marvel superheroes, and Universal Studios monsters), but he also dabbles in writing murder mysteries. His most famous protagonist is Amelia Watson, the second wife of Dr. Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame.
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SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
One of the most powerful urges we have is the need to find answers to questions. Very few of us are content to simply be left always wondering what happened. If someone is murdered, we want to know who did it. When a magician performs a trick that seems to defy explanation, we want to know how he did it. Even for those times when the events themselves are pretty clear - a cheating spouse, for example - we want to know why he did it. The who, what, when, why, and how of a situation are fundamental questions to which we often find ourselves compelled to search for answers.
A few years ago, J. J. Abrams gave a talk at a TED conference on the nature of mysteries and the unknown. It's a fascinating talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html) and perhaps most interesting of all is his story about the mystery magic box he purchased at a magic shop decades ago. I encourage you to watch the video, but the short version is that he purchased a wrapped box that promises to have all kinds of amazing magic inside. And over the months and years and decades, he never opened the box. Why? Because he's fascinated by the idea of its potential more than its reality. What could be in the box is a realm of infinite possibility. But once you open the box, there is a finite reality to what it contains. (For what it's worth, this TED talk is also excellent food for thought on the nature of mystery and the unknown.)
The thing that I find absolutely amazing is that Abrams is able to resist opening that box for all these years. How many of us could resist tearing open that package and finding out what's inside? How many of us can stand to wait to open our birthday presents or Christmas gifts until after breakfast, let alone for days, weeks, months, or years? And how many times do you think Abrams stared at that box and thought to himself, "I really want to know what the heck is in there!"
Humans have a desire for the truth. We have a thirst for knowledge. Think of all the times that our curiosity and our need for answers has gotten us into trouble; of all the times that characters in stories have found themselves thrown into the middle of a larger mystery because they just had to investigate that missing person, or that odd accounting error, or that quirky bit of paperwork, or the reason why their loved one says he has to work late but isn't there when you call the office to see how he's doing. Most of us (except J. J. Abrams, apparently  ) need answers. That need can often solve mysteries for us... but in the right situations, it just might be the catalyst that gets us embroiled in one too. 
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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This week, I would encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
Somewhere, somehow, without notice, something somehow changed. I may have been the only person to notice. I never told anyone. I often wonder these days, what it was? My grandparents sold their home in the late seventies and moved into an apartment block. At that point it became someone else's home, someone else's problem. The old house was back up for sale again recently. I went to have a look at it. Whatever it was I thought was there. I think it's still there.
"They're now allowing the people inside to purchase the last remaining tickets for the first showing of the musical, Pat." she said, smiling at the camera. "What makes this musical so special to a lot of people is that half of the children's cast were orphans. All of them were adopted by the stage crew shortly before casting for the musical began in one of the largest outpouring of adoptions in New York City's long history. Strangely enough this adoption run was sparked by a legendary 'ghostly child'. Rumors have it that this child had been helping people in and around the theater district for the passed three years."
It was midnight. I was sure as I had just heard my cuckoo clock go off twelve times. I was tired, it had been a hectic day and the following day was going to be worse starting with a flight at two in the morning leaving for New York, I had some business there, I was allowed only another hour of sleep even after which I would still make it very late to the airport.
A whispering willow tree swept across a lawn and carried with it a moonbeam that shone under the crevice of a half-opened window and dusted a child's cheek. Six-year-old Jessica woke three minutes before her alarm clock rang. Lowering her legs from her bed, she shut it off. Her eyes popped. She snatched her legs back and locked them in her arms. The bed was on the right side of the room, the desk on the left. Everything was opposite, like a mirrored image.
He was 72. That's a good age to die, they say. He was old enough to have lived a full life, and young enough not to suffer the full wrath of old age. His workmates and people from his firm came to the funeral; both true friends and acquaintances. The whole family came; all his past children and all his siblings who still lived. They chatted and laughed through the night and each came up to me at some point in the evening to express their "deepest condolences". There was a dinner afterwards. No caterer; each guest brought a dish to pass. I didn't have to buy groceries for a month- just slowly ate the leftovers of the casseroles and salads and plates of chopped ham left behind when everyone took their pans and went home.
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Mystery: May 09, 2012 Issue [#5038]
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