Lifestyle: The Mysterious Case of @ipeelorangesverywell - Entertainment & Life - Worcester Mag

As the second largest city in New England, Worcester contains its fair share of mysteries.

Our current obsession isn’t a cold case or a bank heist, but rather, a grand display of self control and humility — a prank so clever that only a sage or a maniac could have dreamed it up. I’m talking, of course, about @ipeelorangesverywell.

The Instagram account @ipeelorangesverywell offers a passion for peeling so eager that it becomes unclear whether the posts evoke satire or sheer citrus devotion. The answer is both.

What began on June 17, 2019, as a simple photo of a navel orange has unraveled in a perfect spiral of inscrutable intrigue. Subsequent posts have revealed peels across the city, each one more precise and exquisite than the last.

As @ipeelorangesverywell unearthed his expressly clever writer’s voice, he watched his followers climb. Soon, he began sprinkling arbitrary hashtags and trademark emojis throughout each caption like private jokes, revealing subtle layers of humor reserved for the internet dwellers among us.

The first post that caught my attention read: “Peeling an orange is like solving a very easy Rubik’s #cube, but like if that Rubik’s cube also spritzed you with essential oils, was jam packed with nutrients and grew out of the ground like #magic! Sure you have to wash that weird white residue off your hands, but I’m sure your hands could use another wash anyway. There’s #literally no downside!”

I was captivated. Could our orange bandit really be as wide-eyed as he seemed? And where had he learned to peel oranges so very, very well?

At 150 followers, he announced a live peel where he dismantled a Shasta Mandarin, referring to it as a “dirty little #gremlin” and likening its texture to the skin on a grandpa’s elbow.

That’s when I began compiling clues such as:

1. Has work colleagues named Cathy and Todd

2. Favorite TV butlers include Geoffrey ("Fresh Prince") and Niles ("The Nanny")

3. Owns sneakers with orange lace grommets

4. Amateur magician

5. No arm tattoos

6. Wears wedding ring, sometimes

He made direct contact on June 19 when I added a photo of a burrata pizza to my Instagram story. “Mama Mia!” messaged @ipeelorangesverywell.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Who am I? Who #are any of us really? I guess I’m just someone who has the #guts to follow his or her heart [heart emoji] and do what they do best (on Instagram) [sunglasses emoji/orange emoji/alligator emoji],” he replied.

In the weeks that followed, live peel videos progressed and an @ipeelorangesverywell scavenger hunt ensued across the city. My enchantment lived in the realization that the man behind the account was a living breathing human among us. Maybe even someone I knew personally. Who could this phantom be? And, would figuring out his identity ruin the fun?

When @ipeelorangesverywell showed up for a taping of the Seltzer Time podcast, my puzzlement only grew. Hosts Ricky Nelson and Travis Duda shared video footage of a man in an orange balaclava and sunglasses, face concealed. He spoke into a voice changer, but one thing could not be disguised — his earnestness was no joke; his affection for oranges was downright sacramental.

At the opening show of last week’s Wootenany Festival, comedian Bryan O’Donnell and guest Che Anderson sat up onstage hypothesizing about the identity of @ipeelorangesverywell. Anderson pointed his finger at a suspect I had previously discounted: my husband. This conjecture was flawed for a number of reasons, but it didn’t stop me from interrogating my life partner all the way home. I had become so enthralled in the mystery that I was willing to question everything and everyone I knew.

The truth is, exposing @ipeelorangesverywell will eviscerate his magic. No one could live up to the whimsical aura he manifests in my feed and on our streets. The thing I find most amazing of all is that in a culture of likes, shares, and egos, he doesn’t want any credit. And so I say to the Willy Wonka of clemmies — I wish you a long and anonymous journey; may all of your wildest fruit fantasies come true.