There are so many things you might do with other people’s secrets, it’s probably impossible to list them all.1 I tried, but … . Feel free to submit your own contributions. (Of course, they will be subject to approval by the editorial board. Credit will be given if and when credit is due.)2
- Share them with your dog.
- Vandalize them.
- Broadcast them.
- Leave them to your heirs.
- Publicize them.
- Pad your bra with them.
- Use them to clean your windows.
- Anesthetize them.
- Bar-B-Que them.
- Proselytize them.
- Sell them.
- Downsize them.
- Google them.
- Put them on your bookshelf.
- Put them in your blender.
- Take them for a spin.
- Invest them.
- Blow your nose with them.
- Labotomize them.
- Burn them.
- Nail them to the wall.
- Trade them away for something better.
- Fold them (at least twice) under the short leg of a wobbly chair.
- Donate them to Goodwill.
- Eat them.
- Discount them.
- Bake them in a cake and send to a prisoner of you choosing.
- Crumple them up.
- Castrate them.
- Amortize them.
- Use them to buy hotels on Park Place.
- Wear them to a costume party. (Hint: Go as a secret.)
- Turn them in to the police.
- Minimize them.
- Saran-Wrap them.
- Validate them.
- Add them to your grocery list.
- Super-Size them.
- Sleep on them.
- Submit them to the IRS.
- Forget them.
- Hang them with magnets on your refrigerator.
- Try them on.
- Refute them.
- Let them slip between the cushions of your sofa (down there with all the loose change and orphaned socks and stubby pencils).
- Make them the plot of your next novel.
- Keep them.
- Turn them into a verb.
- Drool on them.
- Scan them.
- Freeze-dry them.
- Replicate them.
- Put them in your safe.
- Exaggerate them.
- Obsess over them.
- Drop them out the window during a long road trip away from home.
- Cuddle with them.
- Pack them in your child’s lunchbox.
- Masturbate with them.
- Repeat them.
- Memorize them.
- Sue them.
- Understate them.
- Flush them down the toilet.
- Plagiarize them.
- Use them for printer paper.
- Microwave them.
- Adopt them as your own.
- Light them on fire.
- Milk them.
- Take them to confession with you.
- Back over them with your car (twice, just to be sure).
- Put them up for a vote.
- Caress them.
- Turn them inside out.
- Take them for a walk.
- Roast them over a campfire.
- Post them online.
- Hide them in your oven.
- Obfuscate them.
- Ridicule them.
- Translate them.
- Steal them.
- Copy them.
- Randomize them.
- Tout them.
- Give them away.
- Exchange them for a foreign currency of your choice.
- Violate them.
- Slip them under a neighbor’s doormat.
- Diagram them.
- Carry them in your back pocket.
- Place them in the trunk of your car to use as a spare.
- Decipher them.
- Digitize them.
- Sit on them.
- Believe them.
- Make a paper airplane out of them.
- Sterilize them.
- Place them in your outgoing mail.
- Modify them.
- Compliment them.
- Flip them upside down.
- Insert them in your DVD player.
- Rewrite them.
- Wipe your ass with them.
- Floss with them.
- Make them your own.
- Duplicate them.
- Own them.
- Vacuum them.
- Tape them to the bottom of your desk.
- Weaponize them.
- Give them back.
- I’m talking about secrets (specifically, other people’s), but it occurs to me now that the suggestions you’ll find here might work just as well with other people’s other things — like maybe fence posts or bad habits or tax returns. Your call. ↩
- Be sure to let me know how — or even if — you’d like your name to appear in print. If the editorial board determines that your submission warrants extra attention, it will be place at or near the top of the list. ↩