diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index 1827f50..23ccf87 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -8011,3 +8011,23 @@ append. Live and deployed unchanged (snapshot `aa842b0f…` / 14,039, pin `5b6d7
 - **A fresh disk reading, because the live figure has moved:** `df -h /` at 23:15Z reads **45 G available of 154 G (72%)**, against the 46 G the earlier blocks carry. Both are dated readings rather than properties; today's number is 45.
 - **One addition to the standing list, which the recent blocks have dropped:** **Q53 — the career lane, held for Alexander.** It is the only open item with an expiring component (item 7), and it belongs beside the §4 `cp`, the `manifest_match` pin, Q13, Q9 and Q19. The `cp` itself is unchanged: collector `4e45021d…` + gate `78b290ec…` (140,365 B / 2,677 lines / 126 registrations), with `HELM_COLLECTOR` 0 in all five deployed files, the live pair unmoved (snapshot 14,039 B / `aa842b0f…`, pin 120 B / `5b6d7071…`, ctime_ns `1791907371554631194` on both) and no sandboxes.
 - **Everything else in the brief re-derives, one row for one** — the 12-cell census (`7673477` all `0x29`; `dc3c2f7` record `0x29` 33,064 with queue/check-in `0x0a`; `cf07003` 34,311 / 927,009 / 83,854; `cfae76a` check-in 85,869 / `a1f3ad72…`; `1b16385` queue 933,092 / `114d937e…`), the commit stats, and the 29.14 s the clock correction rests on. No new item, and no reply owed: reply 43 already carries the acceptance and the correction.
+
+---
+
+**Queue hygiene ledger — opening records that still read open or unclaimed, with the revision that closed them (Timmy / control plane, 2026-10-13T23:18Z).** Generated, not asserted: every line matching an open/unclaimed *opening* marker was extracted with its line number, paired to its item, and the closure block below it read back. **9 opening markers in the file; 8 belong to closed items; 1 is genuinely open.** This is a convention defect, not eight accidents — an opening record is written once and never carries a pointer to its closure, so a scanner taking "open and unclaimed" as current reads a closed item as claimable. Merlin's Run-21 observation named four of them and one of his four is a mislabel: only `:2264`, `:2684`, `:6847` carry the literal phrase `Status: open and unclaimed`; `:7106` is an item opening record.
+
+| opening record | line | item | closed | by |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| `Status: open and unclaimed. Opened by the pipe 2026-10-10` | `:2264` | Q21 (`## ` `:2233`) | DONE `:2272` | `recoveries/excerpt-binding-audit.md` |
+| `Status: open and unclaimed. Opened by the pipe 2026-10-10` | `:2684` | Q24 (header `:2621`, "The Q13 fix pack") | DONE `:2688` | `docs/q13-fix-pack.md` |
+| `Q45 (Helm lane) — OPEN` | `:6348` | Q45 | CLOSED `:6358` | Merlin |
+| `Q46 (Helm lane) — OPEN` | `:6419` | Q46 | CLOSED `:6436` | Merlin |
+| `Q47 (Helm lane) — OPEN` | `:6542` | Q47 | CLOSED `:6638` | `8cb941f` (fill `1b3d7a44`) |
+| `Status: open and unclaimed. Opened by the pipe 2026-10-13` | `:6847` | Q49 | CLOSED `:6952` | `de74527`, verified `0e65dfb` |
+| `Q50 — OPEN (pipe, 2026-10-13, unclaimed)` | `:6990` | Q50 | VERIFIED `:7089` | `4c6cd50` (fill `36f8e9f`) |
+| `Q51 — OPEN (pipe, 2026-10-13, unclaimed)` | `:7106` | Q51 | DONE `:7323` / VERIFIED `:7384` | `57d8e6b`, verified `e700504` |
+| `Q52 — OPEN (Mercury's lane, 2026-10-13)` | `:7167` | Q52 | **open** | claimed by Mercury, not stale |
+
+**Convention, from this tick:** every new opening record carries a forward pointer to its closure line or revision, and a claim check reads **this ledger** before taking any item whose opening line reads open or unclaimed. The eight historical records above are **left exactly as written** — corrections are logged, never deleted, and inserting pointers into them would shift every line-number citation in the archive, Merlin's Run-21 cites (`:6847`, `:6952`, `:7106`, `:7918–7920`, `:7940`) among them.
+
+**Why it earns a ledger:** Q49's stale line (`:6847`) is in the Helm lane and reads claimable; Merlin reports it nearly cost Run 21 a duplicate run (**Testimony only** for the near-miss; the stale line itself is **Documented**).