Have you heard about this guy? My brother posted this link on facebook a couple days ago, and I decided to share it/discuss it with my students this morning as a little “brain warm up”, or so that was my excuse to share something kind of different!
From Wikipedia:
MacDonald made his first trade, a red paper clip for a fish-shaped pen, on July 14, 2005. He reached his goal of trading up to a house with the fourteenth transaction, trading a movie role for a house. This is the list of all transactions MacDonald made:
On July 14, 2005, he went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen.
He then traded the pen the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle, Washington, which he nicknamed “Knob-T”.
On July 25, 2005, he traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts, with a friend to trade the Knob-T for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
On September 24, 2005, he went to San Clemente, California, and traded the camp stove for a Honda generator.
On November 16, 2005, he made a second (and successful) attempt (after having the generator confiscated by the New York City Fire Department) in Maspeth, Queens, to trade the generator for an “instant party”: an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder’s choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.
Kyle MacDonald’s houseOn December 8, 2005, he traded the “instant party” to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michel Barrette for a Ski-doo snowmobile.
Within a week of that, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia, in February 2006.
On or about January 7, 2006, the second person on the trip to Yahk traded Kyle a cube van for the privilege.
On or about February 22, 2006, he traded the cube van for a recording contract with Metal Works in Toronto.
On or about April 11, 2006, he traded the recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
On or about April 26, 2006, he traded the one year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona, for one afternoon with Alice Cooper.
On or about May 26, 2006, he traded the one afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe.
On or about June 2, 2006, he traded the KISS motorized snow globe to Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand.
On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
I find some of this to be QUITE a stretch, and so did my students, so I encouraged them to do their own research and see what they could find about how exactly he went about finding these “trades”.
Aaaaand there’s your most random post of the day. 🙂
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo