Minnesota Diva (Lancaster Object 003)

Who is the Minnesota Diva? Lancaster Object 003 is a pink tag separated from its artifact. I picked it up on my commute from Pennsylvania Station to my office, The plastic pink pseudo-leather is stitched around cardboard and is capped by a plastic tag painted metallic. The tag shows a crown and the words MINNESOTA in capital letters and Diva in Art Deco script. Surprisingly enough, Lancaster Objects 001 was also pink. Our sample so far is small and statistical meaningless but, you must admit, there is something weird going on with pink desiderata. Some might argue that I have picked up proof of the pink dictatorship that we are all living through.

When I picked up Minnesota Diva, I thought, "piece OK. Surely I'll be able to find the missing accessory once attached to the label. I have in my hands the diagnostic fragment, the label." But it wasn't as easy as that. The first Google hit for Minnesota Diva is an HIV/AIDS charity organization (make sure to watch the video). The next Google hit is a blog, Thoughts from a Diva, "Random images and thoughts from a misplaced Minnesota Diva trying to survive in Wisconsin." The rest of the hits are equally helpless, ranging from actual divas like the Minnesota-born soprano Audrey Stottler to nail salons in Lake City, MN.
No doubt, the lost tag once belonged to a Minnesota diva now attending Franklin & Marshall College. We'll never know unless that Minnesota diva Googles herself and finds this posting, in which case I HOPE SHE LEAVES A COMMENT.

Unlike the previous Lancaster Objects found on a busy road (in fact ran over by a car), this object was collected from the sidewalk around a college dormitory. Walking through the same site again this morning, I saw a diligent employ sweeping up the sidewalk. Unlike the previous sites, this one is kept clean. In other words, the tag could not have been lying dormant for more than 24 hours, otherwise it would have been swept up. The tag clearly belonged to a Franklin & Marshall student living in the adjacent dormitory, College Row. I must have picked it up minutes or just hours after its dislocation.

Lancaster Object 003
"Minnesota Diva" accessory tag (4.0 x 4.5 x 0.5 cm)
Location: 40° 2'57.46"N, 76°18'59.03"W
Date: April 13, 2010