In this week's Long Story Short we are introduced to Christopher James, the owner of Porridge Papers, prepping to become cupid for a day.
CARA PESEK / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, February 10, 2008 6:00 pm
On Valentine’s Day, Lincoln’s cupid will awake early and consult MapQuest.
He will load tiny bottles containing poems and declarations of love and terms of endearment into his car.
And he will deliver them to homes, offices and schools all over town.
How many bottles he will deliver, Christopher James is not yet sure.
This is a last-minute thing, this whim to be the bearer of Valentines.
James, who owns Porridge Papers on South Street, heard about a project in Austin, in which an artist invited people to make their own Valentines.
James decided to borrow the idea, to bring it to Lincoln, and to deliver those Valentines himself.
In a span of two weeks, he rounded up seven old typewriters, three of which he got to work.
He found festive paper, tiny bottles, thin, pretty ribbons.
He invited the public to drop by on Saturday, and today through Wednesday, to type up their declarations of love.
“I woke up at 4:30 this morning because I was excited,” he said Saturday.
Later that morning, wives snuck off to Porridge Papers after telling their husbands they had groceries to get.
Husbands unfolded notes tucked into pockets and retyped poems written the night before.
Two women, friends both married in 1981, came together.
“My husband is really hard to surprise,” said one (whose name we will not use so as not to spoil the surprise).
The women laughed as they remembered how to use to the old typewriters, how to punch down on the keys hard, how to make an exclamation point out of a period and an apostrophe.
One finished right away. The other had to start over a few times.
She apologized.
Her friend didn’t care.
“There’s no hurry.”
Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.