I haven’t moved since I posted “Magnetic personality” in 2008, but my refrigerator was replaced with a newer model in a different location after an apartment remodeling. Not too long ago, I finished redecorating it with magnets I’d found recently. Here we go:

Events and places

• Boyer Candies (Altoona, Pennsylvania)
• Bristol Renaissance Faire 2018
• Clearwater Historic Lodge, Gunflint Trail (Minnesota, August 2014)
• The Devil’s Kettle, Brule River (Minnesota, August 2014)
• Elk Country Visitor Center (Pennsylvania, year unknown)
• Great Lakes, unsalted and shark-free (Indiana Dunes Visitor Center)
• Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (two from Indiana Dunes Visitor Center)
• Letchworth — old railroad trestle, since replaced (May 2015)
• Letchworth State Park — wood (May 2015)
• Metropolis, IL., Home of Superman (May 2013)
• The Naniboujou Lodge (Minnesota, August 2014)
• Pa. Dutch Country: Paradise, Bird in Hand, Blue Ball, Intercourse, Virginville • Virginia may be for lovers, but Pennsylvania has Intercourse (visit in 20XX? to Lancaster)
• “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful” moose, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (July 2013)
• Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pennsylvania (May 2015)
• Rose Hotel (Elizabethtown, Illinois, May 2013)
• Starved Rock (Illinois state park, year unknown)

State souvenirs

• Illinois, Land of Lincoln
• New York, the Empire State
• Pennsylvania, the Keystone State

Decorative/functional/miscellaneous

• Butterflies and planets (powerful magnets)
• Leinie’s Sunset Wheat (gift)
• Lincoln Park Zoo carousel animals
• Pig in overalls with straw hat and grass blade (bookseller included this with a copy of Covered Bridges of Pennsylvania Dutchland)
• Shedd Aquarium octopus (possibly from a 2005 visit)

I attribute the inanity of this post to the blood loss (at least six drops) suffered when a chef’s knife fell out of the drainer and poked a hole in the bottom of my left little toe. Accident prone or death wish? You decide.

After this incident, probably when I was putting the milk back (to ease the last of the naproxen down), I decided to take an inventory of my refrigerator magnet collection in use. I impress myself with how many I can squeeze on.

Functional

• Kitchen timer
• Dry-erase board
• Dry-erase squares
• Dry-erase circles
• Powerful bar magnet, possibly from my dad

Promotional

• Amazon.com: “A room without books is like a body without a soul” (Cicero)
• Chicago Farmers Market 2006
• Chicago Veterinary Emergency Services (one horizontal, one vertical)
• Lincoln Park Zoo Icebreaker featuring a polar bear (for an ice-sculpting competition)
• Northeast Illinois area code map
• University of Chicago Alumni Weekend 2008
• VTonly.com

Souvenirs

• Art Institute Manet exhibit painting
• Blue octopus with blue glass eye from the John G. Shedd Aquarium
• Ravinia 2006 and “Find your inner lawn”
• San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge
• Shoreline Cruise photo of J. and me
• USPS “Love” and “Neuter/Spay” stamps

Purely decorative

• Cartoon birds (two) and insects (two) that were my aunt’s
• Click magnets of four planets and aquatic wildlife (two frogs, two turtles); I also have butterflies that I haven’t put up yet and some from Moonstruck Café that I haven’t been able to find after putting them in a safe place
• Erotic magnetic poetry
• Floral magnets that came with the dry-erase board
• Star Trek: The Next Generation cast photo
• Ziggy, the once-popular cartoon character, which is probably the oldest magnet on the door, dating back to college

I have other magnets on top of the refrigerator, including fragile ones from Bristol Renaissance Faire and two powerful circular magnets from my dad. A PuppetBike magnet is on my coffee table, safe (I hope) from Hodge.