Question Mark Town Roundup for the week of 9/25 - 10/1
Town Announcements
Winners from the Reginald Willey Commemorative Poetry Competition, 1st Place
After much, much disappointment reading this year’s entries, I am pleased to share our first place poem, which comes from Robert Perret. As you will see, this poem ably captures the spirit of our town founder and the town itself. Congratulations to Robert on this incredible piece of literature which will be framed and mounted in the Question Mark Public Library for all future generations to see, etcetera, etcetera.
by envelope
by pigeon wing
our fondest hopes
tied with string
our hearts do leap
just like the year
Reginald Willey
soon is near
there's no question
he hit the mark
in all of Ohio
a shot in the dark
Posted by Mayor Elizabeth Zisk on September 27, 2023
New Reginald Willey Note Discovered
Thanks to the ingenious literary exploration of town scholars Violet Bookman, Iris Englebrecht, and Nanako Yakamoto, I am pleased to announce the Question Mark Public Library is honored to have uncovered a rare, handwritten note outlining Reginald Willey’s vision of the town and nation.
The note was discovered today in his Encyclopedie America and accompanies his musical notation for "Question Mark, OH, Question Mark," a composition which remained unfinished at the time of his death.
It is our pleasure to share his most personal thoughts with you in this transcription below:
25 September 1897
For once, I will speak plainly as this message may be the most important I have sent. I have seen with mine own eyes what Europeans have brought to bear upon this land once thought to be a Paradise. With mine own eyes I have seen the destruction of a native region and its people, and the enslavement of an entire race of humans, and the establishment of a system of class with economic and social ills that will endure long after.
Here in the town I love, I have come face to face with a Most Certain Emptiness, a Void in its Spirit, a Wound of Interminable Greed. And this Wound will only grow stronger, an Endless Circle, spiraling further and further through time.
But even in the midst of so much disappointment, there is hope. After many years of failed attempts, I have uncovered the Mystery of this Endless Circle. I enclose this unfinished composition, Question Mark, OH, Question Mark in the hopes that someone, on some far off day in the Future, will finish the work and save this Town and Nation. For this Noble Experiment is never completed, will never truly be done. I entrust these pages to those in the Future in hopes they may join their voices to this Chorus and close this Void, once and for all.
Reginald Willey
Posted by Greta Twombley, Head Librarian on September 29, 2023
Please, for your own safety, stay away from the big glowy thing in the woods
If you will have noticed, I have not posted in this space after being seriously reprimanded. But this is honestly for the public’s safety, as you will soon see.
Last night some person or persons I may or may not know discovered some kind of interdimensional space-time something or other out in the woods. I went back this morning because I hoped that maybe it would have gone away on its own but as soon as I saw it was still there and I turned and ran. I do not know what it is or what it can do but please keep away from it until the authorities or NASA or someone can figure it all out.
This is very serious, it appeared to be some kind of giant glowing disc but I didn't want to look at it for very long because maybe it steals souls or reads minds or something so I'm not sure. Do not look at it, maybe. I mean someone should look at it, but someone that is trained for this sort of thing unlike me.
Definitely do not go there and take pictures with your goofball friends. Please.
Teenagers, this is not a good place to drink beers and smoke marijuana because if you fall over, like teenagers are always doing, there’s a good chance your face is going to be disintegrated. And then what? Good luck going to Homecoming next weekend.
So, everybody, just please stay away until someone else in charge can figure this all out. Post.
Posted by Officer Ron Dublowski on October 1, 2023
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Community Notes
Hello.
Some people have asked what it has been like to be a mother of a child who has disappeared. I will tell you. It has been devastating but also enlightening.
Being forced to face my greatest fear as a parent has allowed me to gain some perspective, especially into people around me. Some have been incredibly kind. The way the checkout boy at Question Mark Foods handles our groceries as he packs them, I can feel his empathy. Other people have been less thoughtful, looking down when passing me on the street or glancing away when our eyes meet in church, as if our grief or pain might be contagious.
As many of you know, my son Quentin has been missing for nearly three months. But we have not given up hope, as Quentin is still very present in our lives. He sends several messages a day, and, every night, we read to him from his favorite books, using a two-way radio that Gary Dublowski, a very considerate fourth grader, built for us. In this way, we were able to celebrate Quentin’s birthday this past weekend, all huddled around the radio, laughing and telling stories.
Some people ask why hold on so hard? Isn’t it time to move on? Aren’t you just prolonging the inevitable? I asked Quentin these very same questions and what he said was this:
. ...- . -. / .. ..-. / .. / .- -- / -.. .. ..-. ..-. . .-. . -. - / -. --- .-- --..-- / .. / .- -- / ... - .. .-.. .-.. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ... --- -.
Now there is news of a strange void in the woods and many of us are worried about how things will change in town. And I say everything is constantly changing around us, if you bother to pay attention. If I can find a way to live with all these ongoing changes, I am certain you can too.
—Gloria Quinn
Crime Reports
September 26
2:42 p.m. — Tower Avenue and 21st Street, keys missing. A 35-year-old Question Mark man reported that the keys to his apartment had gone missing. D. Holland reported to scene.
Please continue to distribute missing persons fliers to help notify the public about the disappearance of Quentin Quinn.
Read all our Crime Reports.
Upcoming Events
October 8, 2023
Experimental Crop Station Oversized and Irregular Fall Harvest. Please bring your own wheelbarrow or other conveyance. 12pm.
Town Square
October 14, 2023
Eclipse Viewing Event Bring your own viewers or make your own at the Question Mark Public Library. 12pm
British Soldier Field
See all our Upcoming Events
Did You Know?
Operating for more than 150 years, the Greenberg Yarn Factory first opened in 1862, providing critical materials for the uniforms of Union Soldiers during the Civil War. In the 1920s, they used radium to produce a sensational one-of-a-kind thread—StarLite—that gave off its own glow.