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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Mystery Object Open Thread

Mystery Object Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  May 30, 20132:29 pm| 162 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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image
So this object lives on the screened porch of our beach rental. It’s made of bamboo. We have no clue what it is. There’s a barcode on it, which I scanned. But not even Google could enlighten us. It was made in Vietnam. Any ideas?

Please discuss whatever.

UPDATED: I switched out the photo, so hopefully it won’t be sideways now. I moved the thing out to the driveway for a better view (it wasn’t really attached to the house in the original photo; it just looked that way from the camera angle). It’s about two feet tall. It has a solid floor halfway down and is hollow at both ends. WTF?

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Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    Redshirt

    May 30, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    LOL. I am sideways with no answer. Bamboo wood chime for Viet Jug Band?

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    May 30, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    And it’s fucking sideways! Gah! I hate posting with a goddamned iPhone. Can y’all see TWO sideways pictures or just one?

  3. 3.

    shortstop

    May 30, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    Clearly, it’s a guillotine.

  4. 4.

    Shakezula

    May 30, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    No idea, is it hollow?

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    May 30, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    well, it leans to the left, so it’s come to the right blog

  6. 6.

    Shakezula

    May 30, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    @Betty Cracker: 1

  7. 7.

    quannlace

    May 30, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    Looks like a kind of boot jack. You know, a thingy that helps you pull off your boots. Course the fact that it’s hanging of the side of a house argues against it.

    Edit: Oops. didn’t realize the pic was sideways. Maybe it’s to help scrape sand off your feet.

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    May 30, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    It’s the lost bukket of a very skinny Vietnamese walrus?

  9. 9.

    KG

    May 30, 2013 at 2:36 pm

    It’s either a do-hickey or a thingamabopper, can’t tell for certain though.

  10. 10.

    wenchacha

    May 30, 2013 at 2:36 pm

    Bong.

  11. 11.

    Chet

    May 30, 2013 at 2:37 pm

    I think it’s a bucket, but maybe the next picture could have it lit from the front?

  12. 12.

    piratedan

    May 30, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    the portrait of the artist as a young man?

  13. 13.

    Chris

    May 30, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    @shortstop:

    Clearly, it’s a guillotine.

    It says something about what a history/politics nerd I am that that’s the same thing that immediately jumped into my mind.

  14. 14.

    quannlace

    May 30, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    Nice view, by the way. What’s the temps down there?

  15. 15.

    MikeJ

    May 30, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    People are commenting on the thread that appears when you click on the pic too.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    May 30, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    have no idea…but you must be having one helluva vacation to where you can relax to the point of researching this

  17. 17.

    sharl

    May 30, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    How do they keep all that water in that vertical alignment, without it draining downward?
    Hah, gravity has been defeated on Earth at last! Someone alert Michelle Malkin regarding this good news! (h/t TBogg)

  18. 18.

    MikeJ

    May 30, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    I notice the bar code says “Tiger Lil”. Any other info on the sticker?

  19. 19.

    Trollhattan

    May 30, 2013 at 2:42 pm

    Whoa, my comments done been disappeared. I blame the sideways thing.

  20. 20.

    Trollhattan

    May 30, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Oooh, that’s where they are. Double-fun.

  21. 21.

    SatanicPanic

    May 30, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    Overalls for a one-legged person

  22. 22.

    TooManyJens

    May 30, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    What’s that thing tied to it on the upper left?

  23. 23.

    NickT

    May 30, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    Outdoor bathroom tissue dispenser for when nomadic giants happen by.

    Or possibly some sort of washing line hook-up point.

  24. 24.

    nemesis

    May 30, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    Its a diframaloid.

  25. 25.

    ant

    May 30, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    you put yer weed in there

  26. 26.

    scav

    May 30, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    Bamboo hanging vase is my (v. dull) guess. Part one of an all’Mercan build-it-yourself water system for the post-zombie-gay-women-with-income-tseunami is behind door number two. Pen1s gourd speedo is a late-breaking #3.

  27. 27.

    Neddie Jingo

    May 30, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    Sidelong Glance of Sauron. With the lights off. Couldn’t be clearer.

  28. 28.

    Trollhattan

    May 30, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    It’s a Bufano sculpture of a guy doing chinups.

  29. 29.

    BGinCHI

    May 30, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    I checked the catalogue. It’s not a Brancusi.

  30. 30.

    jl

    May 30, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    If BC doesn’t know what it is, this post is a bleg, not a mystery object open thread.

    I expect and answer from the distinguished front poster at the end of this thread, or I am suing this damn blog, that commits post title fraud.

  31. 31.

    piratedan

    May 30, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    or to paraphrase what my Grandfather used to say when confronted with questions like these…. “whatever it is, it sure is a dandy one!”

  32. 32.

    Suffern ACE

    May 30, 2013 at 2:49 pm

    I don’t think you should keep that outside. It’s for use on a boat. In areas where whales are few and far between, it is used in the whale watching industry to attract them. I’ve seen captains wave them, and a few minutes later, a herd arrives with very big bottles of beer. Whales always forget to buy brands with screw tops.

  33. 33.

    Somsai

    May 30, 2013 at 2:50 pm

    It’s a bucket. You carry it on a pole with another one at the other end of the pole to balance. The pole has slight notches so the buckets don’t slide. Far from roads, in places where people have few store bought goods, they use these.

    The water is downhill or sideways of the village and can’t be piped via bamboo halves. It’s women’s work, every day, maybe four or five trips. To feed the pigs and chickens and water vegetable gardens. Sometimes they load the buckets into tall packbaskets and carry them on their backs with a taught line to their foreheads.

    Women also cut the young bamboo and peel it to cook and feed to the pigs.

    They husk rice with a foot powered mortar and pestle. They weave cotton, they hunt for half their protein. Few villages left now. Governments move them to steal the land for timber and rubber.

    Time passes.

  34. 34.

    Fred Fnord

    May 30, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    Ah, those. I remember those. I used to have one but the wheels fell off.

    Good times, good times.

  35. 35.

    Mark

    May 30, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    put it on reddit.

    just remember to accuse it of terrorism in the description

  36. 36.

    j

    May 30, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    I know what it is. It is held during prayer in certain religious rites, like a rosary or a prayer wheel. I think the ones praying use the hole to align their faces with the setting sun.

    I saw something on PBS about an American architect who was commissioned to design a new seminary for the sect/order (Ankor Wat, maybe??), and he saw the students holding a smaller version of what you posted during evening prayers, so he built their bell tower to look just like it.

    I’m trying to find pictures of it and the explanation of how the design came about.

  37. 37.

    Time Travelin

    May 30, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    Bat box?

  38. 38.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 30, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    Uh oh. I don’t know, but whatever it is, it just stood up. Run!

  39. 39.

    sharl

    May 30, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    @Mark:

    Winning the Internets…+1….Awesome…etc.

  40. 40.

    JPL

    May 30, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    @Somsai: Erick Erickson wants to know how much females are being paid for their labor. It’s important to know for those that watch Fox Business channel.

  41. 41.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    May 30, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    Aw jeebus, it’s a wớng. Good luck finding a xêung to make it work.

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    May 30, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    It is a “Total Gym” exercise machine for garden gnomes.

  43. 43.

    mark

    May 30, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    No idea what is is now, but if the talking points change it will become the biggest scandal since Watergate.

  44. 44.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 30, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: So, if you had another one it would make a wight?

    Edit: This looks kind of like the same thing, so would seem to bear out what Somsai wrote.

  45. 45.

    Emma

    May 30, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    Water bucket. The “solid bottom” is the bamboo node. If you cut too close to the node you can damage it, so you leave a piece of the other internode. It also probably makes for a better balance.

  46. 46.

    MikeJ

    May 30, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    @Mark:

    put it on reddit.

    She’d need an upskirt pic of it.

  47. 47.

    NickT

    May 30, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    I reckon we’ve found Rob Ford’s two-person bong.

  48. 48.

    j

    May 30, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    OK, so I think I narrowed down the architect. I guess he found a formula and stuck with it, because he also designed this building with similar lines.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_World_Financial_Center

    The wiki article explains why the circle was scrapped in favor of a trapezoid (religious and anti-Japanese reasons) but it’s pretty much the same thing.

  49. 49.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    May 30, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Buddha, in the marble Sutra, declared that although two wớngs cannot make a wight, two Wangs can make a Chung.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    May 30, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    @quannlace: High around 90 with afternoon / evening storms to cool things down. I have to stay on the porch during the hottest part of the day. I got sunburned in the 20 seconds it took to snap that photo.

  51. 51.

    JGabriel

    May 30, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    Could it be a post-holer?

    To dig holes?

    For posts?

    H/T: Kaley Frye

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    May 30, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    OMG for giants! Run, Betty run!

  53. 53.

    PhoenixRising

    May 30, 2013 at 3:06 pm

    Bukkit. You need the second one and the pole to parry any decent quantity of liquid, though.

  54. 54.

    Keith

    May 30, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    Looks like a device for digging up clams.

  55. 55.

    NickT

    May 30, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    @PhoenixRising:

    When parrying liquid, do we get a saving throw?

  56. 56.

    Shakezula

    May 30, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    You’ve found the GOP’s giant dog whistle!

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    May 30, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    It’s the lost bukket of a very skinny Vietnamese walrus lolrus?

    FTFY. It’s very important to get your terminology correct.

  58. 58.

    Lavocat

    May 30, 2013 at 3:08 pm

    It’s a fermentation vat for bandersnatch urine.

    Mmmmm … bandersnatch urine!

  59. 59.

    brettvk

    May 30, 2013 at 3:09 pm

    Ikebana vase.

  60. 60.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    I think it’s a support for a beach umbrella.

  61. 61.

    Jamey

    May 30, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    It’s a round too-it.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    May 30, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    @MikeJ: Nope. All it says is that it’s made in Vietnam.

    @TooManyJens: The thing on the handle is a silver twisty-tie with old bits of tape clinging to it. The mystery deepens!

  63. 63.

    ulee

    May 30, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    It’s an extra dimensional object. Everything is involved in the taco. It is all repeating itself. Watch the news.

  64. 64.

    Butch

    May 30, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    Planter.

  65. 65.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 30, 2013 at 3:12 pm

    @Jamey: I gotta get one of those one of these days.

  66. 66.

    Anna in PDX

    May 30, 2013 at 3:12 pm

    @Chris: Me three. GMTA!

  67. 67.

    kindness

    May 30, 2013 at 3:13 pm

    Oh Nohs! You ran the bar code? OMG!!!!

    That is the Omega-13 module and running the bar code activates it. Ahhhhhhh!

    I for one will welcome our new overlords, as long as they are TeaHaddist sociopaths.

  68. 68.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 30, 2013 at 3:13 pm

    Bukkit fur a skinny lolrus.

  69. 69.

    ulee

    May 30, 2013 at 3:14 pm

    The quarterback that died near the river in Michigan said he was leery. He had entered an extra dimensional situation. It is coming quickly now.

  70. 70.

    srv

    May 30, 2013 at 3:16 pm

    Isn’t there an app for this?

  71. 71.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 30, 2013 at 3:16 pm

    @ulee: Wait Tim Tebow said he was Timothy Leary? Okay this is all making sense now.

  72. 72.

    Southern Beale

    May 30, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    I moved the thing out to the driveway for a better view….

    Nooo!!!! You didn’t MOVE it?! Have you not seen ANY horror movies from the ’70s! Now you’ve unleashed the Krakken!

  73. 73.

    cleek

    May 30, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    long, tubular, handle at the top, at the beach:

    therefore…. it’s a carrier for fishing poles.

  74. 74.

    Hannity Hussein

    May 30, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    That, my friends, is the last woman “dominated” by the esteemed Erick Erickson.

  75. 75.

    ulee

    May 30, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: As you know, Billy Pilgrim became unstuck in time. That is what is happening.

  76. 76.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    We met with the city utility folks and I don’t think it could have gone better. They obviously are not going to admit any kind of guilt but they do acknowledge that their GIS map are wrong. They are going to have to do survey and design work but we may be up and running by September. They were very nice, not that taking the princess along had anything to do with that!

  77. 77.

    Amir Khalid

    May 30, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    Ahem.

  78. 78.

    srv

    May 30, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    It’s a well bell

    Hanging well planter and wood bell.

    Or it could be an elephant dildo

  79. 79.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 30, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    @ulee: Oh you mean “Bill E Pilgrim” is like “Billy Pilgrim”?

    Huh. You’re right. Never occurred to me.

  80. 80.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    @cleek: It may be a rod holder for surf fishing, I’d like to know the dimensions.

  81. 81.

    ulee

    May 30, 2013 at 3:26 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: no shit sherlock.

  82. 82.

    JWL

    May 30, 2013 at 3:27 pm

    It’s a cylindrical breathing tube template the Viet Cong employed in construction of their network of tunnels. The cross-T handle on top was typically driven 1 to 2 inches below ground level, lifted out, and re-used in incremental spacings along the length of the particular tunnel. The breathing holes thus created were then camouflaged to appear as solid terrain.

  83. 83.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 30, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Mind meld!

  84. 84.

    Kyle

    May 30, 2013 at 3:29 pm

    It’s a Japanese flower vase. Have bought similar ones.

  85. 85.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 30, 2013 at 3:29 pm

    @ulee: Maybe I should go back to my old handle, “SmokeTooMuch”.

  86. 86.

    srv

    May 30, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    In other news, Harvard is lowering the bar for sociopaths:

    Getting into Harvard Business School just got easier. At least, the application form did.

    HBS announced that applicants seeking admission for the Fall 2014 incoming class will no longer need to submit two 400-word essays, and may not even have to write anything at all.

  87. 87.

    ulee

    May 30, 2013 at 3:31 pm

    It’s a vision swallower.

  88. 88.

    cathyx

    May 30, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    Can it be a clam digger?

  89. 89.

    Riccardo Cabeza

    May 30, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    It’s a bucket, maroons.

  90. 90.

    piratedan

    May 30, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    @srv: well it’s not like writing essays helped those two asshats that brought back Dickensian economics. Maybe they’re replacing it by demonstrating a knowledge of how to use Excel.

  91. 91.

    scav

    May 30, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    @srv: Well, they couldn’t lower their mathematics / excel qualifications any lower.

  92. 92.

    cathyx

    May 30, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    Try this: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/452169652/clam_digging_fishing_tools.html

    Clam digger.

  93. 93.

    ulee

    May 30, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: don’t believe lies but first get supplies.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    May 30, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Maybe I should go back to my old handle, “SmokeTooMuch”.

    Well, you’d better cut back then.

  95. 95.

    Amir Khalid

    May 30, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    @Riccardo Cabeza:
    Just not for a skinny lolrus. :(

  96. 96.

    JGabriel

    May 30, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    srv:

    HBS announced that applicants seeking admission for the Fall 2014 incoming class will no longer need to submit two 400-word essays, and may not even have to write anything at all.

    So, Harvard has determined that writing skills are no longer required to be trained as an economic sociopath?

  97. 97.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 3:42 pm

    @cathyx: or this

  98. 98.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    May 30, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    @srv:

    But having Walker and/or Bush in your name will still give one an edge…

  99. 99.

    Warren Terra

    May 30, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:
    I thought everybody had to Wang to make a Chung tonight.

  100. 100.

    ET

    May 30, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    Vase for dried flowers??

  101. 101.

    scav

    May 30, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    @JGabriel: Talking points come pre-packaged (even tweets are outsourced). Might add a screen test though, especially if they can make them appear wired and digitally with-it.

  102. 102.

    Suffern ACE

    May 30, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    I don’t read Salon that often any more but I found the article on Ford Motors’ Panel on Millenials kind of interesting. http://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/millennials_dont_hate_cars_they_cant_afford_them/

    In the era of Big Data, it would appear that no one in marketing actually knows how to do anything but spout off anecdotes about the kids. I don’t actually interact with many people under 30 on a regular basis, but those that I do know don’t seem to be anything like the young folks described by the panel of experts.

  103. 103.

    jl

    May 30, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    Schlafly decides to join the Wisdom of The Donald and help the GOP decide to head for extinction. I like their outreach program so far. It seems a success if the idea was to limit but solidify support among older white male bigots.

    Conservative Icon Calls GOP’s Need To Court Hispanics A ‘Great Myth’
    Catherine Thompson, TPMLivewire

    Phyllis Schlafly of the “pro-family” group Eagle Forum called the GOP’s need to reach out to Hispanic voters a “great myth” during a conservative radio program Wednesday.

    ‘ “The Hispanics who have come in like this will vote Democrat and there’s not the slightest bit of evidence that they will vote Republican,” Schlafly said… ‘

    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/conservative-icon-calls-gops-need-to-court-hispanics

  104. 104.

    cathyx

    May 30, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    @raven: Yes, and it makes sense since she’s at the beach.

  105. 105.

    Pete

    May 30, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    An oar lock?

  106. 106.

    jl

    May 30, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    @cathyx: Of course. When I get up early, like around dawn, to walk along the beach, I see fishers using things like this all the time to dig bait.

  107. 107.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    @jl: It’s just that the clam digging devices have T handles for twisting into the sand and that handle doesn’t look like it would be easy to apply much force.

  108. 108.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    May 30, 2013 at 3:56 pm

    @Pete:

    Probably not an Eloi…

  109. 109.

    Rainy Day

    May 30, 2013 at 3:58 pm

    It’s a shishi-odoshi base. It’s missing the second piece. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishi-odoshi

  110. 110.

    Redshirt

    May 30, 2013 at 4:01 pm

    The sideways picture was way better.

  111. 111.

    BGinCHI

    May 30, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    Water carrier for trolls.

    AKA, the Breitbart.

    AKA, The Tea Party.

  112. 112.

    Betty Cracker

    May 30, 2013 at 4:07 pm

    @raven: You’re right about the handle not being too sturdy, but I am leaning toward the clam digger theory. Maybe it’s just a crappy clam digging implement.

  113. 113.

    scav

    May 30, 2013 at 4:09 pm

    A) the continued existence of the barcode might argue against it being anything employed usefully in damp sand (although it might have been aspirational). But I may B) just never have been impressed by the functional utility of random objects found in rental vacation houses.

  114. 114.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 4:10 pm

    @jl: fishers? No one ever called me that!

  115. 115.

    Betty Cracker

    May 30, 2013 at 4:10 pm

    @Rainy Day: I always associate those with the O-Ren Ishii showdown in “Kill Bill.”

  116. 116.

    scav

    May 30, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Betty, is the bottom of the tube (away from the handle) open or closed? Critical detail distinguishing two common, if duller, hypotheses.

  117. 117.

    Meg

    May 30, 2013 at 4:16 pm

    Not the same height. But have a look at this wine bucket

  118. 118.

    Betty Cracker

    May 30, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    @scav: Open. It’s open at both ends with a solid floor (possibly the naturally occurring bamboo node wall as someone suggested earlier) about 8 inches from either end. I’m guessing its about 2 feet tall if you include the handle. It’s big enough around to drop canned goods into it.

  119. 119.

    RyanayR

    May 30, 2013 at 4:20 pm

    Calm digger.

  120. 120.

    Maude

    May 30, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    It might be Art.

    John McCain had his picture taken with a group of kidnappers who kidnap pilgrims in Syria.
    Go, Johnny, Go.

  121. 121.

    scav

    May 30, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    @Betty Cracker: that helps (plus scale), if only increases the general weirdness to some degree! not as stupid a bucket contender as I once thought as the bamboo is on the larger end of the scale, although still smallish in light of usual water demand.

  122. 122.

    Redshirt

    May 30, 2013 at 4:29 pm

    Viet Jug Band.

  123. 123.

    rea

    May 30, 2013 at 4:29 pm

    It’s a bulb planter.

  124. 124.

    peach flavored shampoo

    May 30, 2013 at 4:30 pm

    Is it a Mobius stripper?

  125. 125.

    Dupe70

    May 30, 2013 at 4:30 pm

    Tiger Lily website has them on sale: http://www.tigerlily-vn.com/proList.asp?gid=2

    Item code: P7K21

    But no description – lol.

  126. 126.

    tybee

    May 30, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    @RyanayR:

    calm down, it would have to have a sharpened edge at the bottom to efficiently dig calms.

  127. 127.

    Meg

    May 30, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    @Dupe70: Yes, it looks similar to the wine bucket I linked above in #117.
    I think it is for you to carry wine for a beach picnic.

  128. 128.

    p

    May 30, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    made of bamboo, no discernible function? the idea that it’s a guillotine is amusing, given fla (for the tiny minds of the state’s politicians? i have neighbors who’d use it for the squirrels that eat the distributor cables in their cars).
    a memorial?

  129. 129.

    p.a.

    May 30, 2013 at 4:44 pm

    Rea beat me to it. Anyhoo, that place looks nice- invite me down. I’m reasonably housebroken. But I am a yankee.

  130. 130.

    kindness

    May 30, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    You people are funny. Have none of you ever actually dug clams? Growing up on the shore in CT I did every week either for bait or for the clams to eat.

    Soft shell clams (the ones with the long neck) burrow deep so we used a pitch fork shovel. These clams live at the inter-tidal zone so you walk out when the tide is out and dig.

    Hard shell clams live in in deeper water but in sandy/muddy bottom pretty shallow. Those we used an actual clam rake.

  131. 131.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 30, 2013 at 4:49 pm

    It’s an ashtray. Fill up the bottom with sand to make it heavy and stationary. Put sand in the top to stub out cigarettes in.

  132. 132.

    Suffern ACE

    May 30, 2013 at 4:52 pm

    @Maude: Just like our founding fathers! Freedom fighters!

  133. 133.

    BruceFromOhio

    May 30, 2013 at 4:55 pm

    Umbrella stand.

    @peach flavored shampoo: Saw one of those once. No matter how much clothing she removed, she was never truly nekkid.

  134. 134.

    R-Jud

    May 30, 2013 at 4:57 pm

    Feedbag for an aardvark.

  135. 135.

    JasperL

    May 30, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    I’ve used something like it to pound fence posts into the ground – hollow tube with a solid core. You put the tube over whatever you want to drive into the ground and use the tube as a guide. Then lift the device up keeping the fence post in the tube, and bring the device down like a hammer to drive it into the ground. Easier than a sledge hammer – don’t ever “miss.”

    So it might be useful to pound things (like a rod holder, or umbrella stand) into soft sand, depending on how sturdy the device is – hard to see from the picture. You might even be able to use it as a device to push things (rather than hammer them) into soft sand.

  136. 136.

    Tim B

    May 30, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    It’s a big umbrella holder.

  137. 137.

    Susan K of the tech support

    May 30, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    Fountain part?

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 30, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    Tweety asks why Democrats are always on defense, why aren’t they talking about jobs, and then brings on Sherrod Brown and…. Harold Ford. Ford uses his time to speak for something called “regulatory certainty for the broadband industry”– I don’t know what he means, but I don’t trust him– and for building our “pipeline infrastructure”. Gee, Tweets, I can’t figure out why the Democrats can’t change the conversation. Why don’t you ask Harold Ford?

  139. 139.

    Trollhattan

    May 30, 2013 at 5:08 pm

    @ kindness
    All I know about is Puget Sound and the Pacific coast, where we’d use a “clam gun,” which kinda looks like Betty’s wood thingie, for razor clams. But the wood thingie is too wimpy.

    http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/fishing/docs/ClammingFlyer.pdf

  140. 140.

    raven

    May 30, 2013 at 5:13 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hate to say it but Mornin Joe was funny this morning with Howard Dean and a panel moaning about the press “scandal”. They all got in their argument and then Joe said “I’m going to be Harold Ford”, I agree with you, you, you you and you. . .”

  141. 141.

    kindness

    May 30, 2013 at 5:18 pm

    @Trollhattan: Quite cool. Way more technology than what I grew up with.

    No, living in the Bay Area now I just buy clams in the market like everyone else. Hardly ever fish any more. But I’ve had a feeling of wanting to make some Boulliabase. Mine tends to be more shellfish stew than fish stew so I suspect I will be visiting those markets soon.

  142. 142.

    Jebediah

    May 30, 2013 at 5:31 pm

    Since the thread, it is open: dogs being tired together.

  143. 143.

    Trollhattan

    May 30, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    @kindness:

    Yum! I think my three favorite things to eat are boulliabase, cioppino and paella.

  144. 144.

    Trollhattan

    May 30, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    @Jebediah:

    Dey both gotted teh dog meezelz!

  145. 145.

    smintheus

    May 30, 2013 at 5:43 pm

    Looks like an ash tray.

    ETA: Already said by Just Some Fuckhead.

  146. 146.

    Geoduck

    May 30, 2013 at 5:44 pm

    If you don’t get an answer, there’s a blog that does a weekly listing of tools that need IDing:
    http://55tools.blogspot.com/

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    May 30, 2013 at 6:00 pm

    @Jebediah:

    Aww. Is Juno also the boss (or at least the caretaker) of Chucky like she is with Otto?

  148. 148.

    Bucky Reynolds

    May 30, 2013 at 6:00 pm

    I have seen these in a series of sizes and they are used as a gong instrument.

  149. 149.

    DLew On Roids

    May 30, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    It’s a TRAP

  150. 150.

    SG

    May 30, 2013 at 6:05 pm

    It is, I believe, a bamboo Japanese Ikebana vase. Google “bamboo ikebana vase” images for some similar examples.

  151. 151.

    Jebediah

    May 30, 2013 at 6:16 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    But I can’t figure out which one gave it to the other…

  152. 152.

    Jebediah

    May 30, 2013 at 6:20 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    She’s pretty bossy with Chucky – she goads her into playing, then shuts it down with a (tiny little) bark’n’snarl when Chucky gets a little too rough for her taste. But no caretakeriness. Chucky is young and spry, so I guess Juno figures she’s on her own. (And I love that you remember details about my doggies!)

  153. 153.

    sacrablue

    May 30, 2013 at 6:28 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s why I can’t watch Tweety anymore. I think he had Lanny Davis on the other day. FSM forbid he should have anyone under the age of 50 on his show. Somebody need to tell him that it is not 1982 anymore. MSNBC wants to know why they are losing viewers? Argggh!

  154. 154.

    Redshirt

    May 30, 2013 at 6:44 pm

    All worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings.

  155. 155.

    maya

    May 30, 2013 at 6:46 pm

    Though I have been unable to find a facsimile I’m pretty sure it’s a cog from a water wheel. Picture a wheel with many of these attached by the handle end to the wheel. The wheel goes round, water fills in the upper floored chamber, the lower open chamber acts as a ballast holding the cog against the wheel until it spills into whatever spout draws the water away. They can be replaced very easily. There are bamboo water wheels in Viet Nam of all different types, but this has an aesthetic design to it as well, so, an ob-jet. d’art

  156. 156.

    rea

    May 30, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    Dupe70 clearly found it above at No. 125

    http://www.tigerlily-vn.com/proList.asp?gid=2

    Which of course is consistent with the “Tiger Lily” tag. It’s hysterical that the company selling it online does not indicate what it is . . .

  157. 157.

    kwAwk

    May 30, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    Given that it is on the screen porch and in Florida could it not just be an umbrella stand?

  158. 158.

    Hawes

    May 30, 2013 at 9:56 pm

    It’s pretty clearly a snark facilitator attached to a thread starter.

  159. 159.

    Tim Gollmer

    May 30, 2013 at 11:21 pm

    ikebana vase maybe

  160. 160.

    Debbie(aussie)

    May 31, 2013 at 3:51 am

    Apologises if this has all ready been stated- I thi k it might be a tool do sucking up sand likely to contain worms pull it out empty sand and check for yabbies, just my guess

  161. 161.

    Ashin Sopāka

    May 31, 2013 at 5:18 am

    Reorienting the pic seems to have deleted my comment.

    It’s a “gong” used in Buddhist temples.

  162. 162.

    Dean Thomas

    May 31, 2013 at 9:40 am

    It’s a Clam Gun. Really – just google “clam digging tool”, there’s even a DIY plan.

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