18 October 2024

Schuylkill notes

"Found a bunch of these in the woods. What am I looking at?  These were left in a city park pinned to trees behind a leaf or at the base of tree trunks.  I ended up collecting a half dozen or so and there was a second version that varied from this one (didn't take a photo of it). Is there a code to decipher here or what? So confused by these ramblings."
The weird subreddit thread discusses schizophrenia and links to this Wikipedia entry:
Schuylkill notes are small pieces of paper with symbolism-oriented conspiracy theories printed on them which have appeared in many location in different forms. Authorship of the notes is unknown, with them often being found inside food packaging, hanging from trees along hiking trails, and state parks. They have been discovered primarily in northeastern and central Pennsylvania...

The notes are pieces of paper sized approximately 2 by 3 inches. They are found folded in product packaging, the pockets of store bought clothes, or packed into plastic bags closed with a string and attached to trees along trails. Messages printed on Schuylkill notes vary greatly. They usually contain 19 lines of text printed in narrow writing, commonly linking symbolism from business, culture, nations, history and government to secret societies, and seeming to combine multiple conspiracy theories, purporting that secret societies have a global level of influence. Some Schuylkill notes have large corners of the paper taken up by one word – typically "lies" – written in all caps with a larger text size...

They have been discovered in a variety of products such as Lucky Charms, Lindt chocolate, Nature's Path Panda Puffs, Belvita cookies, Milk Duds, Hot Tamales candy, Duncan Hines cake mix, and Tylenol medication. The products containing the notes were purchased in multiple grocery stores such as Walmart, Target, GIANT, Weis Markets, Wegmans, Trader Joe's, Dollar General, CVS, Kohl's, Goodwill, Lowe's, Cabela's and Aldi.

3 comments:

  1. Hah, this is Time Cube on steroids. (I love how there is zero information on the Wikipedia page on why they're called Schuylkill notes. I hadn't heard of the place before.)

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    Replies
    1. There's a Schuylkill county in PA. Schuylkill is Dutch for hidden river.
      The Schuylkill river runs through Philly to the Delaware River.
      There's a Schuylkill expressway (aka Sure Kill) connecting Philly with the PA Turnpike. What other site gives you such advanced edumacation.
      xoxoxoBruce

      Delete
  2. Toynbee redux? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toynbee_tiles

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