In November 2000, in a workshop at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, Graham Mort asked participants to list six things that could be in a backpack he put on the table. When we listed our items, he challenged us to be specific: if it was a book, what book; is there a bookmark in it; if so, what's on the bookmark? A second step involved six items that could not be in the backpack. When I did this exercise in a course in 2002, a Swedish exchange student's second list included a revolver. When pressed, she said she meant the never-located revolver used to assassinate Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme in 1986. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 30 September 2025)