So what’s your idea in regards to the Magdeburg sandwich thrower? Simply in case you haven’t but encountered this thriller for the ages, a phantom chucker of tinfoil-wrapped sausage, cheese and salami frühstücksbrötchen (breakfast rolls, a German factor presumably, and I can’t say I hate it) has been, properly … not terrorising, however maybe intriguing or mildly irritating residents alongside the B184 within the Saxony-Anhalt area of Germany.
An image within the newspaper of native soccer membership supervisor Holger Becker down on one knee, holding out some crumpled foil through which a worthy-looking brown crust is seen, as if proposing to the viewer with it, is a chic addition to the canon of indignant individuals in native information pointing at stuff.
The seek for that means has been highly effective and poignant. The sandwiches – some bitten, some untouched – are thrown solely on weekdays earlier than 6am. May they symbolize a cathartic gesture of revolt in opposition to capitalism, the grind, or gluten? Are they expressing anger, or rejecting German values?
Psychologist Anke Precht informed a newspaper that the sandwich fly-tipping might be the results of a “missed second” for candour in a relationship, which has resulted in a necessity for ongoing duplicity. Maybe, the speculation goes, the thrower doesn’t like breakfast bröte however mistakenly gave their accomplice the impression they do, and having left it too late to inform the reality has hit on this resolution? These things occurs. I informed my future husband I favored clubbing on our first date to attempt to sound edgy, then needed to go clubbing repeatedly for a depressing 12 months, each of us feigning enjoyment. However why the drama, when chucking it within the workplace bin would do the job? No, there’s a defiant, performative ingredient right here – a need to be unmasked.
However is “why” the best query? Trying to find that means and developing a story round occasions is what makes us human, positive, however it’s half Fortean Occasions, part-Ripley’s Consider It Or Not! on the market proper now. Within the final week, I’ve examine a Florida man attempting to cross the Atlantic in a hamster wheel, a useless nun who has remained completely preserved for 4 years in Missouri, and Mexico senate hearings into extraterrestrial life analyzing “historic aliens” that appear like one thing you may purchase from a head store in Camden Market in London.
We’ll put on ourselves out attempting to grasp all of it: is the thriller totem pole on the Kent coast a pagan image or an artwork undertaking, or is it invoking divine safety for nesting birds? Has a Chinese language zoo changed its solar bear with an individual in a bear swimsuit (inform me you haven’t zoomed in on its wrinkly arse and questioned) to attract curious crowds? Is the mysterious “skin-like” golden orb discovered within the sea flooring off Alaska an alien pod?
And that’s solely the stuff that doesn’t matter (I’ll remorse saying that when orb flu comes for me subsequent 12 months). What in regards to the issues which might be bogglingly bizarre however essential? The previous US president protecting labeled paperwork in his (hideous) bathe room. Liz Truss writing a e-book to “share the teachings” from her farcical premiership. Billionaires threatening to cage battle one another or biohacking themselves to everlasting life when Earth could be incompatible with all human life fairly quickly. Matt Hancock – OK, he doesn’t matter however I can’t cease myself whispering “why?” at every contemporary full-body cringe that marks his post-politics “profession” (couldn’t we put him on a hamster wheel within the Atlantic? I guess he’d agree if we inform him Channel 5 is filming it).
More and more, I feel dealing with life in 2023 is a matter of shedding the impulse to hunt explanations. We’ve accepted (form of) that we dwell in a post-truth age; it’s in all probability time to just accept we’re post-meaning too. Let final week’s cautionary story of Virgin Media reporting {that a} mysterious crater on a Dublin seaside could be “the aftermath of a cosmic occasion” when it was dug by “some fellas … with a child’s shovel” information you.
What does all of it imply? Nothing. Save your vitality. You’ll want it to lure squirrels and battle the sewer individuals quickly sufficient. Time to embrace the age of the inexplicable.
