Question Things Found in the Whateley Lost and Found

Well, yes. Do you need more time or more hints on the rather... animated... set of references I already posted?

Two Mobius's Secret bras; One's a One Size Hides All sports bra, the other is from the "Fort Knocker" line.

A Cthulhu Hoop

A slip of "vellum" enscribed with "HASTUR... HASTUR... HAS-" and that's where the tear in the paper cuts it off.

> A metallic bracelet with a round, dull dark jewel embedded in it, with a label attached: WARNING: DIRECT CONTACT WITH SKIN IS EXTREMELY HARMFUL.

You can tell I'm Old, because this is obviously a Lens. If I had to guess, it would be one of the original set from First Lensman?

> A kit containing:
- A 5ml purple-topped Vacutainer tube, a bit more than half full, labeled "M.Mus."
- A fresh egg
- A box of wooden toothpicks.

Implements for summoning Death, though you might also want something to hold his interest once he gets there.

--Dave

a hard boiled egg with toast cut into little soldiers, and a sprig of lilac.

dbdatvic wrote: > A metallic bracelet with a round, dull dark jewel embedded in it, with a label attached: WARNING: DIRECT CONTACT WITH SKIN IS EXTREMELY HARMFUL.

You can tell I'm Old, because this is obviously a Lens. If I had to guess, it would be one of the original set from First Lensman?

Not any particular one, no, since it's canon that all Lenses have this effect when separated from their owners.

dbdatvic wrote: > A kit containing:
- A 5ml purple-topped Vacutainer tube, a bit more than half full, labeled "M.Mus."
- A fresh egg
- A box of wooden toothpicks.

Implements for summoning Death, though you might also want something to hold his interest once he gets there.

YES! FINALLY someone figured it!

A red kitchen toaster with some type of display on one side and one end open with the internal circuitry mangled

A golden trophy representing Victory holding a cup overhead.

The Foot-the-ball cup from "Unseen Academicals"?

A small, grotesquely ugly statue of a four legged toad with an eyeball in its mouth. Whatever you are imagining, it's uglier than that.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A small, grotesquely ugly statue of a four legged toad with an eyeball in its mouth. Whatever you are imagining, it's uglier than that.

The Trophy of Jahk, from Myth Directions, in the Myth-Adventures series by Robert Asperin

Nocte wrote:

A golden trophy representing Victory holding a cup overhead.

The Foot-the-ball cup from "Unseen Academicals"?

Missed it by that much...

A talking MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System (Halo 4/5 assault rifle) With "aim bot" functionality.

Bek D Corbin wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A small, grotesquely ugly statue of a four legged toad with an eyeball in its mouth. Whatever you are imagining, it's uglier than that.

The Trophy of Jahk, from Myth Directions, in the Myth-Adventures series by Robert Asperin

Yep!

OK, it's been over a month so I'll let everyone off of the hook: they are all items related to Animutations , specifically,

• broken pacemakers, Buddy Jesus doll - frequently used clip images used in many different animutations
• signed Best of "Who's Line is it Anyway?" DVD - a clip image of the original host of the series, Colin Mochrie, is probably the most common piece used in these
• VHS tapes of The Mr. Bean Show and Hong Kong Phooey - clip images and videos of the main characters
• inflatable crocodile pool raft - relating to "French Erotic Film" (original song: "Opblaaskrokodil" by Ome Henk), it's the namesake pool toy in the song
• bottle marked 'Ritalin' and filled with liquid - Related to "We Drink Ritalin" (original: "Hot Limit" as covered by John Desire)
• large plastic fig leaf, and a copy of Flash Studio circa 1999 - related to "Irrational Exuberance" (original: "Yatta!" by Greenleafs)
• CD of Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants - "Fingertips Project" (original: live version of "Fingertips" by TMBG), one of the few animutations that doesn't rely on soramimi
• Dead hobo, found in my room, and axe used to kill said hobo - "Hyakugojyuuichi!!!" , the first animutation publicly released by Neil Cicierega, AKA Lemon Demon (he made an earlier one that he didn't post until later), kicking the whole thing off, and "Hyakugojyuuichi Forever!!! , a sort of retrospective that in some ways bookends the genre

> The ID card for a one-handed man.

I never did ask, is this the ID of the one-armed man Dr. Kimble saw the night his wife was murdered?

Also, here's an easy one: an exquisite glowing jewel covered in seaweed and ocean mud.

Yes indeed it is that one-handed man.

Reposting my still-outstanding old ones, in the hope of reviving interest in this thread:

1. A golden trophy representing Victory holding a cup overhead.
- The Jules Rimet trophy, which was stolen and never seen again. Tracked down by Annachie.

2. A basketball-size golden sphere with dozens of cylindrical protrusions. - The "orb" from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. - located by Bek D. Corbin.
3. A CBN container with some odd, but otherwise harmless-looking bluish-green cereal.
4. A purple and white aerobics outfit, suitable for a very tall woman. - One of She-Hulk's costumes, recognized by Ametros.
5. A labrys (two-headed axe) with a severed hand still grasping the handle.
6. Five gold rings, each one with a design of a different number of birds -- one, two, three, four -- except for the fifth, which has five circles. - The Rings of the Master from the homonymous saga by Jack L. Chalker -- found by Phoenix Spiritus
7. A globe (yes, the sort used on geography classes) that instead of countries, is covered by thousands of small figures carrying protest signs.
8. A small metal box, with very sophisticated liquid shock absorbing on the inside, containing a small silvery ball a few centimeters in diameter.
9. A box a bit larger than an old-fashioned Walkman, with a strong belt attached. Other than some control buttons of unclear purpose, its only feature is a metal ring protruding from one side.
10. A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."
11. An Egyptian scarab jewel, made in gold with lapis lazuli and sapphire accents. - Dan Garrett, the original Blue Beetle's (in the sixties Charlton Comics revision, that is) power item - Unearthed by Schol-R-LEA

Sir Lee wrote: Reposting my still-outstanding old ones, in the hope of reviving interest in this thread:

*A golden trophy representing Victory holding a cup overhead.

The trophy from Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals?

*A basketball-size golden sphere with dozens of cylindrical protrusions.
*A CBN container with some odd, but otherwise harmless-looking bluish-green cereal.
*A purple and white aerobics outfit, suitable for a very tall woman.
*A labrys (two-headed axe) with a severed hand still grasping the handle.

I know that i know this, but i still can't think of it...

*Five gold rings, each one with a design of a different number of birds -- one, two, three, four -- except for the fifth, which has five circles.

Four calling birds,
Three french hens,
Two turtle-doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

*A globe (yes, the sort used on geography classes) that instead of countries, is covered by thousands of small figures carrying protest signs.
*A small metal box, with very sophisticated liquid shock absorbing on the inside, containing a small silvery ball a few centimeters in diameter.
*A box a bit larger than an old-fashioned Walkman, with a strong belt attached. Other than some control buttons of unclear purpose, its only feature is a metal ring protruding from one side.
*A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."

Agatha Heterodyne's Clanks?

*An Egyptian scarab jewel, made in gold with lapis lazuli and sapphire accents.

Sir Lee wrote: *A basketball-size golden sphere with dozens of cylindrical protrusions.

I want to say it's the Tnuctip espionage device from "The Soft Weapon" (or "The Slaver Weapon" for you Star Trek Animated Series fans), but I don't think that is quite the description of it - it is described as bronze-colored in the original story (I had to look that up, I was thinking it was silvery) but shown as green in the animated episode (either because the director was color-blind - which was why the Kzinti wore pink, the director didn't notice and later apologized to Niven - or because it posed a problem in the artwork) and had a handle in its default form, so I guess not.

The 'dozens of cylindrical protrusions' makes me think it is something by Howard Taylor, given his love of 'fiddly bits'.

Sir Lee wrote: A CBN container with some odd, but otherwise harmless-looking bluish-green cereal.

The Necromantically contaminated grain shipments sent to Anderhal at the beginning of Warcraft III, maybe?

The basketball-sized broze sphere is the mysterious 'Orb', the main maguffin from 'The Adventures of Brisco County', a truly demented old Bruce Campbell steampunk cowboy show

An axe covered in blood, a three-prong gun, and a pair of gold lamé bicycle shorts.

A life preserver from the SS Pumpkin Pie. Abandon ship!

A pair of binoculars which had been mistakenly locked in a cupboard.

A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on it it just the same.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: An axe covered in blood, a three-prong gun, and a pair of gold lamé bicycle shorts.

Whatever happened to Saturday night?

Edit: Sorry about the double post. Once In A While it happens.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: An axe covered in blood, a three-prong gun, and a pair of gold lamé bicycle shorts.

Whatever happened to Saturday night?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on it it just the same.

Unlike Saturday night.

Bek D Corbin wrote: The basketball-sized broze sphere is the mysterious 'Orb', the main maguffin from 'The Adventures of Brisco County', a truly demented old Bruce Campbell steampunk cowboy show

YES! Thank you!

Mister D wrote: The trophy from Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals?

Missed it by THAT much... consider that Discworld is chockful of references itself... OK, extra hint, since this has been out there so long: It's NOT fictional, it's an actual real-world (missing) object.

Mister D wrote:

*Five gold rings, each one with a design of a different number of birds -- one, two, three, four -- except for the fifth, which has five circles.

Four calling birds,
Three french hens,
Two turtle-doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Yes, they reference the song, but why are the rings DESIGNED after the song?

Mister D wrote:

*A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."

Agatha Heterodyne's Clanks?

Noo... much older than that...

*An Egyptian scarab jewel, made in gold with lapis lazuli and sapphire accents.

I'm really surprised that nobody figured out this one. Or the one about the purple and white aerobics outfit, for that matter.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: A CBN container with some odd, but otherwise harmless-looking bluish-green cereal.

The Necromantically contaminated grain shipments sent to Anderhal at the beginning of Warcraft III, maybe?

No, but you are warmer than you think.

OK. Now I have to chime in. Though I'll be impressed if someone gets this one:

a shoe box containging three small white elephants, packed in dried leaves.

When you say "small white elephants", you mean like statuettes, or like mouse-sized actual elephants (living or dead)?

*A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."

This sounds like an SCP of some kind.

Sir Lee wrote: When you say "small white elephants", you mean like statuettes, or like mouse-sized actual elephants (living or dead)?

statuettes.

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

*A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."

This sounds like an SCP of some kind.

No SCP. It's from a classic.

Sir Lee wrote: Or the one about the purple and white aerobics outfit, for that matter.

I want to say She-Hulk.

Sir Lee wrote:

*Five gold rings, each one with a design of a different number of birds -- one, two, three, four -- except for the fifth, which has five circles.

Four calling birds,
Three french hens,
Two turtle-doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Yes, they reference the song, but why are the rings DESIGNED after the song?

Jack L. Chalker's rings of the master.

Don't forget to sing the song when you use them.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Jack L. Chalker's rings of the master.

Don't forget to sing the song when you use them.

YES! This took a bit too long, considering the community...

Oh, and Ametros figured it right, the aerobic outfit IS the one She-Hulk used as a costume back in the John Byrne days.

Sir Lee wrote: *An Egyptian scarab jewel, made in gold with lapis lazuli and sapphire accents.

Oh! It's the original (1940s Charleston) Blue Beetle's power item.

Any thoughts on the gem I mentioned? Seriously, it should be obvious.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: *An Egyptian scarab jewel, made in gold with lapis lazuli and sapphire accents.

Oh! It's the original (1940s Charleston) Blue Beetle's power item.

Any thoughts on the gem I mentioned? Seriously, it should be obvious.

Correct in essence. It's the original Beetle's, Dan Garrett, power item, yes. But the 40's version was by the Fox Syndicate and didn't involve a mystical jewel; this element came with the Charlton Comics' reimagined version in the sixties.

Sir Lee wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Jack L. Chalker's rings of the master.

Don't forget to sing the song when you use them.

YES! This took a bit too long, considering the community...

Cool!

I've read his Well-World series, but i hadn't come across any of his other work.

More stories to look for... TYVM

Kettlekorn wrote: A red collar with three thin wire-like projections extending out and curving upward: one a microphone, one a speaker, and one an antenna.

"Brain are you there brain"
Brain the dogs collar from the inspector gadget cartoon.

Just to refresh everyone's memory, my last one was: an exquisite glowing jewel covered in seaweed and ocean mud.

A gold star (hint, hint) for those who can name it and its siblings.

Let's see, something else easy: a World War One gas mask, an unusually wide-barreled pistol, and a walking stick.

A brass rifle and several odd 'musket balls' made of glass. The wooden case they are in smells strongly of salt water.

A large ceramic wine jug labeled "Cottonwine", sealed in heavy plastic and marked with both biohazard and psychohazard warnings.

A large paper punch machine stenciled "property of D. Sokol". There is a punched paper tape threaded into it, with the words "PC '76 demo tape" written in pencil on the unpunched section. A bag with several new, unpunched tapes is hung on side of the machine.

Sir Lee wrote:

Mister D wrote: The trophy from Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals?

Missed it by THAT much... consider that Discworld is chockful of references itself... OK, extra hint, since this has been out there so long: It's NOT fictional, it's an actual real-world (missing) object.

Not the only person to be self referencing hey Mr. I'm from Brazil.

The Jules Rimet Cup Which is actually still missing from when it was stolen from, you guessed it, Brazil.

Themed list.

A piece of christmas pudding.

A typewriter.

A piano that was played at Waterloo.

A trombone.

A picture of Queen Victoria.

A black music box with sand on it.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Let's see, something else easy: a World War One gas mask, an unusually wide-barreled pistol, and a walking stick.

Uh... Wesley Dodds' (the original Sandman) equipment?

annachie wrote: Not the only person to be self referencing hey Mr. I'm from Brazil.

The Jules Rimet Cup Which is actually still missing from when it was stolen from, you guessed it, Brazil.

YES! YES! YES!

Yep. I'm pretty sure that the cane was from when he was older, though (he'd had a stroke and had to retire, but was still a member of the JSA in an advisory role).

Behold, as the thread arises once again from the thaumaturgical circle! Fear the zombie thread!

Me, Myself, and I wrote: Just to refresh everyone's memory, my last one was: an exquisite glowing jewel covered in seaweed and ocean mud.

A gold star (hint, hint) for those who can name it and its siblings.

A brass rifle and several odd 'musket balls' made of glass. The wooden case they are in smells strongly of salt water.

A large ceramic wine jug labeled "Cottonwine", sealed in heavy plastic and marked with both biohazard and psychohazard warnings.

A large paper punch machine stenciled "property of D. Sokol". There is a punched paper tape threaded into it, with the words "PC '76 demo tape" written in pencil on the unpunched section. A bag with several new, unpunched tapes is hung on side of the machine.

Did I mention that the last one is a historical reference rather than a literary one? I probably should have...

Oops, missed one still outstanding:
A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on to it just the same.

Goes along with a 3m long velvet cloak in royal blue, with three suspensor disks unobtrusively stitched into the folded part opposite the clasp.

(Yeah, I read a lot of his stuff when I was in high school, so sue me)

Did I do the small metal fife with six holes and engraved words in both Chinese and Sanskrit, yet? (yeah, I read a lot of his stories, too)

I don't think anyone got this one either: a beer keg which contains... something liquid. It bubbles and it burbles and it glows a fizzly green. Taste great, but oh, the hangover!

And a few new ones: a fuzzy green and yellow alligator who is about as intelligent as a 6-year-old child, loves to play silly games, and chatters on endlessly about nothing in particular. Nothing you do seems to hurt it.

A glass containing a drink which could kill a herd of cows at 100 paces.

A letter from a love-lorn woman who met a man once in Red Lion, Pennsylvania.

A larger than life solid gold statue, covered in sea muck, of a couple engaged in mutual oral sex.

A plastic tiara and matching plastic scepter, a small pouch filled with a strange dried herb, and a hand-sewn sailor fuku fitted for a woman 12' tall and having a size 60G chest. There are claw marks on it.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Oops, missed one still outstanding:
A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on to it just the same.

Nah. I still think it's plutonium.

Tobey Faire, it never was said just what it was. I'm pretty sure he was joking about that, but, well, it did sort of scare him when his friend didn't say it wasn't.

New one:
A canteen fashioned from a gourd, done in a Celtic style. It contains some unknown liquid resembling a broth.

The beheaded corpse of a hawk of unknown species with poison sacks on its talons.

A talking chameleon wearing a fez.

A device that looks like a blaster but fires hockey pucks.

A small chest of yellow metal containing an unusual magenta gemstone.

A pair of shoes, red at the heels and toes but yellow in the midsections, with green cuffs.

A one-meter-wide limestone nose

Unless I miss my mark, I believe 'A one-meter-wide limestone nose' may have come from the sphynx.

Yep.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: The beheaded corpse of a hawk of unknown species with poison sacks on its talons.

I was going to say a harpy, but I don't recall them having venom sacs.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: The beheaded corpse of a hawk of unknown species with poison sacks on its talons.

I was going to say a harpy, but I don't recall them having venom sacs.

It's probably Australian,everything there has a venom sac.

@Kettlekorn: I've been on the OSdev forum too much today - I read you .sig and thought, "Only at night? Wouldn't the system stack overflow?"

Valentine wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: The beheaded corpse of a hawk of unknown species with poison sacks on its talons.

I was going to say a harpy, but I don't recall them having venom sacs.

It's probably Australian,everything there has a venom sac.

Err, give us a sec, I'm sure I can think of something that doesn't ...

Another item for the lost and found:

A small scrap of paper containing the words, "Some of the sheep".

A crumpled piece of paper which clearly has something written on it (parts of the writing are visible). However, when one smooths the paper, it becomes impossible to tell what's written.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: @Kettlekorn: I've been on the OSdev forum too much today - I read you .sig and thought, "Only at night? Wouldn't the system stack overflow?"

Hahah. That sort of kernel usually is the first thing I think of when I see the word, and I spent way too many hours last week compiling the damn things. You can't even eat them. Not satisfying. Beats stocking shelves, at least. Some of the things that go on shelves can be eaten, but you're not allowed to. That is torture.

A bouncing bowling ball with a real skull sealed inside.
The Dual blade
A Stool sample. (Formally known as Zool)
Tailey poo
Black bubblegum
Monster blood
A wooden plate with a iron bridge and shiny green back.
A giant suitcase time machine. One of many.
A metal raptor sized shopping basket.
A loud screwdriver. (The toy version was better.)
Authentic ninja lingerie.
Mask of a handsome jack. (Looks real ugly)
A cube shaped mechanical brain.
Monster XXXL Super soaker. Sara's favourite.
Transformation gun. With settings V1 to 5 M and F. Sadly not functional.
A copy of Mighty Action X (Kamen Rider).
Golden box that destroys turns all who look inside to dust. Arc of the covenant. Or Jeraco's bathing suit collection.
An autographed stretch armstong. [Watly Valedictorian 1974]
A Tommygun that shoots pie.
A photo album of jeraco's wardrobe sealed with lead.
Sara (No wonder we couldn't find her.)
A steam powered computer.
A blue Cassette player with a small evil mask like symbol on it.
Bus Ticket half wrapped in duct tape.
2 members one black and white spotted one shiny and green.
2 helmets that reek of vomit.
A recursive Whateley lost in found box.
_Containing: A recursive Whateley lost in found box.
__Containing: A recursive Whateley lost in found box.
___Containing: A recursive Whateley lost in found box.
____Containing: A recursive Whateley lost in found box.
_____Containing: A recursive Whateley lost in found box.
______Containing...

NJM1564 wrote: A bouncing bowling ball with a real skull sealed inside.

Is it actually the Bowler's, or did the TLW break into Ms. Grimes' house again?

NJM1564 wrote: A cube shaped mechanical brain.

A Mother Box, perhaps? I wonder if it can make a Boom Tube for me, I'm running late for an appointment on Tamaran...

NJM1564 wrote:
Transformation gun. With settings V1 to 5 M and F. Sadly not functional.

Well, his Dad will be back with more than enough parts to fix it soon. Didn't you read the note he left on the fridge?

NJM1564 wrote: 2 helmets that reek of vomit.

Damn it, Joe, what did those guys do to you? I mean, aside from trying to kill you and everyone else at the party.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

NJM1564 wrote: A bouncing bowling ball with a real skull sealed inside.

Is it actually the Bowler's, or did the TLW break into Ms. Grimes' house again?

A Mother Box, perhaps? I wonder if it can make a Boom Tube for me, I'm running late for an appointment on Tamaran...

Well, his Dad will be back with more than enough parts to fix it soon. Didn't you read the note he left on the fridge?

It's Bowlers alright. (Mystery Men)
Nope not a Mother Box. Perhaps I should have specified a cube shaped robot brain.
Missed the note Razerback ate the fridge. And they had better be more careful about shielding there experiments. It wasn't fun getting hit by that back blast.

A good sized crate labeled:

Now that's not the least bit ominous.


Also, I just noticed no one ever commented on this one:

Several gallons of irradiated tiger's blood, marked 'Property of Charlie'.

OK, so it's not something anyone would actually need to guess about, it's pretty self-evident, but I get anxious and insecure about a lack of comments on my attempts at humor.

The Sampo, a Daktari stool, and a large crate marked "Hamdingers".

A thokcha phurba (a cruciform dagger or spike made from meteoric iron) with a gilded handle and an apotropaic carving as the pommel. It has a tag on it stating that it was donated in 1986.

Still hoping someone will get the gem from long ago (the one dredged from the sea floor where a mythopoeiaic - hint, hint - continent once lay). Among others.

I also found out that one of them - the paper tape and reader - wasn't quite right. The bit about it happening at the First World Altair Conference - AKA "PC '76" - was disinformation, it actually happened about a month earlier at a BAHBCC meeting.

Huh, I would thought that at least someone would have remembered that film. Admittedly, it wasn't a great one, and very much a vehicle for the star rather than done for its own merits, but still.

The one before it should have been easy, too, I even had to erase part of the picture of the stool so it wouldn't have been dead obvious who was holding it. They are all associated, in one way or another, with the trio that were in the original picture that shot of the stool came from, and it isn't so much a 'guess what it is' as a 'what do they relate to'. OK, so I got the wrong Sampo (deliberately), but hey, they didn't know what it was either.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Still hoping someone will get the gem from long ago (the one dredged from the sea floor where a mythopoeiaic - hint, hint - continent once lay). Among others.

The rock from the Disney Atlantis movie?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A thokcha phurba (a cruciform dagger or spike made from meteoric iron) with a gilded handle and an apotropaic carving as the pommel. It has a tag on it stating that it was donated in 1986.

Google-fu suggests the Ajanti Dagger from "The Golden Child", which I didn't go see.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Still hoping someone will get the gem from long ago (the one dredged from the sea floor where a mythopoeiaic - hint, hint - continent once lay). Among others.

The "Heart of Atlantis"?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: I also found out that one of them - the paper tape and reader - wasn't quite right. The bit about it happening at the First World Altair Conference - AKA "PC '76" - was disinformation, it actually happened about a month earlier at a BAHBCC meeting.

I prefer to disavow any knowledge of BASIC which I may or may not have or have had at any point in the past.

Not Atlantis, no, but the author definitely had in mind something of equal mythic stature, if not even greater. I am quite sure you have seen the movies based on the work, though none have been made (to the best of my knowledge) of the eponymous book covering these three gems.

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A thokcha phurba (a cruciform dagger or spike made from meteoric iron) with a gilded handle and an apotropaic carving as the pommel. It has a tag on it stating that it was donated in 1986.

Google-fu suggests the Ajanti Dagger from "The Golden Child", which I didn't go see.

Yes. As for seeing it or not, well, it isn't bad, but it isn't worth going out of your way to see, either.

As for the paper tape, it isn't so much about BASIC per se as it is about the specific copy of the specific version in a specific time period (the key word being 'copy', as it was, and therein lies the tale).

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Not Atlantis, no, but the author definitely had in mind something of equal mythic stature, if not even greater. I am quite sure you have seen the movies based on the work, though none have been made (to the best of my knowledge) of the eponymous book covering these three gems.

A work of greater mythic stature - then it would be the Silmaril cast into the sea by Maglos.

We have a winner!

(His name was actually Maglor, his brother being Maedhros, but close enough.)

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Another item for the lost and found:

A small scrap of paper containing the words, "Some of the sheep".

The only thing left of the camp site where Phoenix Spiritus was studying Aussie wildlife. It presumably is the one type of non-venomous animal found before disaster struck.

Or the note might have been one written by Rod McBan, I dunno.

Still hoping someone will recognize (among other things) the brass rifle, the jug of 'Cottonwine', and the punched paper tape, the Buddhist relic fife, the beer in the keg, the fuzzy yellow and green alligator, the lethal alien cocktail, the letter and the gold statue (from the same set of stories, sort of, but not really connected otherwise), and the cosplay gear with the medicine pouch.

While nulltrooper0 didn't say so directly, I am pretty sure he recognized the gray metallic bar (and presumably the cloak). I would appreciate if he, or anyone else, were to elaborate (or even Illuminate - no, wait, wrong clue) the rest.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Another item for the lost and found:

A small scrap of paper containing the words, "Some of the sheep".

The only thing left of the camp site where Phoenix Spiritus was studying Aussie wildlife. It presumably is the one type of non-venomous animal found before disaster struck.

Close enough. It's the description found in Death's library of all the non-dangerous wildlife on continent XXXX

Oh, and don't nibble on the herbs in the pouch, the way the owner might when things start getting hairy. Unlike her, you can't eat a bowl of that stuff for breakfast (and wash it down with strychnine) every morning and survive.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Or the note might have been one written by Rod McBan, I dunno.

That's a deep cut reference in itself, Cordwainer Smith was an amazing writer that most people don't remember these days.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: While nulltrooper0 didn't say so directly, I am pretty sure he recognized the gray metallic bar (and presumably the cloak). I would appreciate if he, or anyone else, were to elaborate (or even Illuminate - no, wait, wrong clue) the rest.

Well, you gave the actual description of plutonium - a hand sample (bad idea) would be warm to the touch thanks to alpha decay. ¹⁸⁶Pu plays a role in Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves" as a medium of exchange (so to speak).

The cloak rigged with suspensor disks strikes me as something Alia Atreides would wear. Otherwise, no idea.

Did the brass rifle and glass munitions originally belong to Captain Nemo? ("Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea")

Altair Basic == before my time, although I read "Hackers" years ago.

Not sure I'd want to stumble upon a barrel of "307 Ale". It sounds as sketchy as the gnome-brewed ale one of my D&D/Pathfinder characters managed to sample (before the still blew up again.)

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: While nulltrooper0 didn't say so directly, I am pretty sure he recognized the gray metallic bar (and presumably the cloak). I would appreciate if he, or anyone else, were to elaborate (or even Illuminate - no, wait, wrong clue) the rest.

Well, you gave the actual description of plutonium - a hand sample (bad idea) would be warm to the touch thanks to alpha decay. ¹⁸⁶Pu plays a role in Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves" as a medium of exchange (so to speak).

The cloak rigged with suspensor disks strikes me as something Alia Atreides would wear. Otherwise, no idea.

Nope. They are both from a single short story, and neither of those authors had a hand in it (though a pair of BNFs from the mid-1960s may have played a part in inspiring it). The term 'cloak' is a hint, in fact.

null0trooper wrote: Did the brass rifle and glass munitions originally belong to Captain Nemo? ("Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea")

Yeppers!

null0trooper wrote: Altair Basic == before my time, although I read "Hackers" years ago.

Hmmn, might want to refresh your memory of that, since that was where I first ran across the story in question.

null0trooper wrote: Not sure I'd want to stumble upon a barrel of "307 Ale". It sounds as sketchy as the gnome-brewed ale one of my D&D/Pathfinder characters managed to sample (before the still blew up again.)

Yeah. I don't even want to think about what a liquid containing (not even as its entire mass, mind you) 153½% ethanol by volume would do to my liver.

A 2 ton bale of marijuana that sets of dosimeters and Geiger counters as they approach it.

OtherEric wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Or the note might have been one written by Rod McBan, I dunno.

That's a deep cut reference in itself, Cordwainer Smith was an amazing writer that most people don't remember these days.

Ah, but did you notice the other item by him I mentioned? Not from the IoM stories, it was an unrelated short, but still it was one by Dr. Linebarger and published under the Smith pseudonym.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Ah, but did you notice the other item by him I mentioned? Not from the IoM stories, it was an unrelated short, but still it was one by Dr. Linebarger and published under the Smith pseudonym.

Presumably the Buddhist relic fife, but I barely remember that story past the title. I really do need to re-read at least some Smith soon, and it's quite true that his non-instrumentality stories tend to get short shrift.

A salt shaker. It smells faintly of alcohol and bears a Mexican brand.

Could be from anywhere in Mexico they serve tequila...

Yes. The story is called "The Fife of Bodhidharma", and the instrument can either calm or enrage the listeners depending on how it is played.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: While nulltrooper0 didn't say so directly, I am pretty sure he recognized the gray metallic bar (and presumably the cloak). I would appreciate if he, or anyone else, were to elaborate (or even Illuminate - no, wait, wrong clue) the rest.

Well, you gave the actual description of plutonium - a hand sample (bad idea) would be warm to the touch thanks to alpha decay. ¹⁸⁶Pu plays a role in Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves" as a medium of exchange (so to speak).

The cloak rigged with suspensor disks strikes me as something Alia Atreides would wear. Otherwise, no idea.

Nope. They are both from a single short story, and neither of those authors had a hand in it (though a pair of BNFs from the mid-1960s may have played a part in inspiring it). The term 'cloak' is a hint, in fact.

To expand upon this, it is specifically a hint regarding the title of the story.

A 3.5" floppy disk with a psychohazard label. The disk contains a pre-cease-and-desist version of The Journal Entries.

(sorry, Elf, I couldn't resist the joke. We still love you. In the same carnal way as ever.)

In a desperate attempt to keep this going, here are my outstanding one (modulo the most recent) again, with one small hint added:

A large ceramic wine jug labeled "Cottonwine", sealed in heavy plastic and marked with both biohazard and psychohazard warnings.

A large paper punch machine stenciled "property of D. Sokol". There is a punched paper tape threaded into it, with the words "PC '76 demo tape" written in pencil on the unpunched section. A bag with several new, unpunched tapes is hung on side of the machine. (Note that this is an historical reference rather than a literary one, and is specifically related to the First World Altair Conference - though it turns out that the actual event didn't take place there after all.)

The Sampo, a Daktari stool, and a large crate marked "Hamdingers".

A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on to it just the same. Goes along with a 3m long velvet cloak in royal blue, with three suspensor disks unobtrusively stitched into the folded part opposite the clasp. (Also, the word 'cloak' is a hint on the title.)

A fuzzy green and yellow alligator who is about as intelligent as a 6-year-old child, loves to play silly games, and chatters on endlessly about nothing in particular. Nothing you do seems to hurt it.

A glass containing a drink which could kill a herd of cows at 100 paces.

A letter from a love-lorn woman who met a man once in Red Lion, Pennsylvania.

A larger than life solid gold statue, covered in sea muck, of a couple engaged in mutual oral sex. (This and the previous one about the letter are related, though only indirectly.)

A plastic tiara and matching plastic scepter, a small pouch filled with a strange dried herb, and a hand-sewn sailor fuku fitted for a woman 12' tall and having a size 60G chest. There are claw marks on it. If tested, the herb turns out to be aconite, specifically the flowers and leaves.

Several gallons of irradiated tiger's blood, marked 'Property of Charlie'. (OK, I'll give it to you - one paragraph down from here.)

A 2 ton bale of marijuana that sets off dosimeters and Geiger counters as they approach it. (OK, so this is more of a topical reference than anything you need to guess at, sort of like the earlier one about Charlie Sheen's 'tiger blood'.)

Is the second one The Winslow?

YES!!!! (though I was still adding things I'd over looked and the numbering got out of wack, its now #5 I think.)

Some more I missed:
A life preserver from the SS Pumpkin Pie. Abandon ship!

A pair of binoculars which had been mistakenly locked in a cupboard.

The Sampo, a Daktari stool, and a large crate marked "Hamdingers".

Somebody raided the Satellite of Love, but not 100% sure on the specifics. (Still a lot of episodes I haven't seen.)

Yep. The Daktari* stool was supposedly something seen offscreen in one episode (Joel later brought an actual one he made, which is where the picture in the original post is from).

The Sampo is a magical artifact from the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala; one of the films they watched was a poorly-made production of one of the stories in the saga, but the bots made a big point of talking over the narration explaining what the Sampo was, so they then spent most of the film making jokes about not knowing what it was (for the record, IIUC, it is a hand mill which could produce a powder or flour of any non-living substance the user asks it to; needless to say, it mostly got asked to grind out gold).

Hamdingers are an obscure Wisconsin thing, a kind of canned pressed ground ham which was pre-cut for sandwiches (the idea being basically a hamburger which is actually ham, but sold as a canned meat like Spam). Apparently, they were not particularly tasty. The joke here was that there was an escape pod in the crate, but because it was marked Hamdingers, no one noticed it until it was appropriate dramatically (and/or production-wise) for Joel to escape, setting up the Mike stories.

* 'Daktari' is a style of furniture and clothing that involved animal prints (mostly zebra), and pseudo-African designs. Apparently, the name comes from a television show about an American doctor working in Africa which was popular in the 1960s, and the style - which had nothing to do with the show, really, other than the name - was popular for a while.

A new one:

A plush toy rabbit, colored blue, with its ears tied in a knot. If you open the zipper on the back, you find out that there's a brick inside it.

And my outstanding ones:

1. A CBN container with some odd, but otherwise harmless-looking bluish-green cereal.
2. A labrys (two-headed axe) with a severed hand still grasping the handle.
3. A globe (yes, the sort used on geography classes) that instead of countries, is covered by thousands of small figures carrying protest signs.
4. A small metal box, with very sophisticated liquid shock absorbing on the inside, containing a small silvery ball a few centimeters in diameter.
5. A box a bit larger than an old-fashioned Walkman, with a strong belt attached. Other than some control buttons of unclear purpose, its only feature is a metal ring protruding from one side.
6. A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."
7. A canteen fashioned from a gourd, done in a Celtic style. It contains some unknown liquid resembling a broth. Panoramix's (Getafix's for you English-speakers) magic potion, from Astérix. Spilled by Schol-R-Lea
8. A crumpled piece of paper which clearly has something written on it (parts of the writing are visible). However, when one smooths the paper, it becomes impossible to tell what's written.

EDIT: uh, what happened to the bullets/number indexes of the lists? Another unforeseen consequence of the Joomla changes?

Sir Lee wrote: A canteen fashioned from a gourd, done in a Celtic style. It contains some unknown liquid resembling a broth.

Huh, I wonder how long that stuff lasts, I mean, it's gotta be undrinkable after 2000 years. Still, maybe we can test it and see if we can figure out Getafix's recipe. We'd probably need help from Magic Arts though...

Sir Lee wrote:

A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."

Qould these be Agatha Heterodyne's Clanks from Girl Genius ?

Schol-R-Lea: you hit it on the head, it's indeed Panoramix' (or "Getafix'" for you English-speakers) magic potion.

Mister D: You are not the first to hazard that guess. But no, it's not that. It's from a MUCH, MUCH more famous story. SO famous that the Foglios wouldn't have a problem with that comparison.

Maybe it's because I just read today's Skin Horse, but now I'm thinking it has something to do with Tik-Tok, the Wind-up Man of Oz.

But not tiki burgers, unlike, say, the cosplay gear.

Not Oz either. It is arguably bigger than that.

Not sure where to go with that, but here's a new one:

A capsule-shape object about 3cm long a 1cm across, with a button on one side and the number 23 printed above the button. When pressed, it expands into a large crate containing a white stylized Japanese kitsune mask, a red bow with the letters 'RR', a blue cape, a pink crested helmet and matching gauntlets fitted for a child, a long staff, a sheathed dao with a wolf motif on the scabbard, a wakizashi (also sheathed), a crystal ball with a strip of linen tied around it, and two giant turtle shells with leather straps. The shells each weigh around 200Kg.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Not sure where to go with that, but here's a new one:

A capsule-shape object about 3cm long a 1cm across, with a button on one side and the number 23 printed above the button. When pressed, it expands into a large crate containing a white stylized Japanese kitsune mask, a red bow with the letters 'RR', a blue cape, a pink crested helmet and matching gauntlets fitted for a child, a long staff, a sheathed dao with a wolf motif on the scabbard, a wakizashi (also sheathed), a crystal ball with a strip of linen tied around it, and two giant turtle shells with leather straps. The shells each weigh around 200Kg.

Goku's closet.

From the original Dragon Ball series I recognize.
Capsule corp storage device.
Red ribbon army.
The long staff.
And the first thing I recognized was the turtle shells.

Well, actually I was thinking of it as Bulma (or maybe Chichi) keeping a bunch of memorabilia, but basically yes. The cape, helmet and gloves were Chichi's, from her first appearance. The fox mask belonged to the original Gohan, the old man who adopted Goku; while his fighting style was supposedly the same Turtle School as Roshi's, he apparently wore that mask in fights and had kitsune-themed moves of his own. The dao and the wakizashi were Yamcha's and Yajirobe's, respectively (though as a ronin, Yajirobe's never shown wearing a second sword, hence why he was willing to give it away I guess). The crystal ball is Baba's, with a bandage from the mummy that appeared in one story involving her.

I probably should let this go, but:

• A large ceramic wine jug labeled "Cottonwine", sealed in heavy plastic and marked with both biohazard and psychohazard warnings.


• A large paper punch machine stenciled "property of D. Sokol". There is a punched paper tape threaded into it, with the words "PC '76 demo tape" written in pencil on the unpunched section. A bag with several new, unpunched tapes is hung on side of the machine. (Note that this is an historical reference rather than a literary one, and is specifically related to the First World Altair Conference - though it turns out that the actual event didn't take place there after all.) paper tape with a beta version of Microsoft BASIC for the Altair, and Dan Sokol's paper punch used to make copies of it, swiped by Nulltrooper0.


• The Sampo, a Daktari stool, and a large crate marked "Hamdingers". [Items on the Satellite of Love, during the Joel era of Mystery Science Theater 3000, solved by OtherEric)


• A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on to it just the same. Goes along with a 3m long velvet cloak in royal blue, with three suspensor disks unobtrusively stitched into the folded part opposite the clasp. (These are both from a short story about the balance between freedom and safety, by an author I've mentioned several times here already. Also, the word 'cloak' is a hint on the title.) A bar of platinum and the titular cloak in the Larry Niven short story "The Cloak of Anarchy", stunned into submission by Nulltrooper0


• A fuzzy green and yellow alligator who is about as intelligent as a 6-year-old child, loves to play silly games, and chatters on endlessly about nothing in particular. Nothing you do seems to hurt it. [The Winslow, solved by OtherEric]


• A glass containing a drink which could kill a herd of cows at 100 paces.


• A letter from a love-lorn woman who met a man once in Red Lion, Pennsylvania.


• A larger than life solid gold statue, covered in sea muck, of a couple engaged in mutual oral sex. (This and the previous one about the letter are related, though only indirectly.)


• A plastic tiara and matching plastic scepter, a small pouch filled with a strange dried herb, and a hand-sewn sailor fuku fitted for a woman 12' (~4m) tall and having a size 60G chest (US measurements, and no I'm not kidding, they never give an exact figure for her, ah, figure, but the size is in keeping with how she appears). There are claw marks on it. If tested, the herb turns out to be aconite, specifically the flowers and leaves.Cosplay costume and bag of wolfsbane belonging to Sarah Hazen, from the adult webcomic Peter is the Wolf peeked on by NJM1564.


• A 2 ton bale of marijuana that sets off dosimeters and Geiger counters as they approach it. I probably should have dropped this one, it's only been a few weeks and already the reference is painfully dated) A smuggled North Korean nuclear bomb, stopped at the border by Nulltroper0


• A life preserver from the SS Pumpkin Pie. Abandon ship! A joke about Harry/Hermione, 'shipped by Nulltrooper0


• A pair of binoculars which had been mistakenly locked in a cupboard.

I will add a hint on the cosplay gear:

There is another one that is a reference to the same genre, by a different artist, one who is very famous in that field.

Also, the mixed drink is one I would have expected to be solved by now. While it was a throw-away gag that was part of a larger joke, and far from the most infamous of the cocktails in the trilhexology in question (though I don't think any of the versions in other media used that line, except possibly the original), it is such a famous story I would have thought someone would have caught it.

And for my last hint today, regarding the statue and the letter fnord, the letter itself never gets mentioned in either of the two trilogies it refers to, but it is hinted that it caused the officer it was written to some marital problems fnord. The statue only appears in the first of the trilogies.

Oh, and Sir Lee, are the clockwork devices the watches owned by The White Rabbit and The Mad Hatter? I really doubt it, but you did say arguably more famous than WOOz, which made me think the it was Wonderland instead.

Sara.

*facepalms*

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A cranching wire.

Scanners Live in Vain!

Yes, though I've mentioned two other things from that series earlier, as well.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: The entire great gray-green greasy Limpopo River all set about with fever trees.

Hmmn, this sounds vaguely familiar, and there is a Limpopo River in (I think) central Africa, but I can't quite place it. Something from Heart of Darkness, perhaps?

The Limpopo River is from Kippling (if I recall correctly The Elephant's Child)

Ametros wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A large package, with proper postage, that seems to be growling.

A bobcat?

I just ran across this again, and while I don't know if anyone else got it, the correct answer just struck me: Taz The Tasmanian Devil, as shown in the three or four different Looney Tunes in which he's being shipped to a zoo and delivered to someone such as Bugs or Daffy by mistake.

Also: a large marble pedestal, with two broken feet from a larger than life marble statue on top, and an inscription in hieroglyphics.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

A glass containing a drink which could kill a herd of cows at 100 paces.

Is that a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster? Or maybe a glass of scumble?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Oh, and Sir Lee, are the clockwork devices the watches owned by The White Rabbit and The Mad Hatter? I really doubt it, but you did say arguably more famous than WOOz, which made me think the it was Wonderland instead.

I didn't say "more famous", I did say "arguably bigger." As in a more important work. Let me put it this way: far more people are familiar with "Harry Potter" than with Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey... but, culturally speaking, which of them is the "bigger thing"?
And no, it's not the White Rabbit's watch. Note that I didn't say "clock" or "watch", I did say "clockwork", and that one was missing.

Anne wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: The entire great gray-green greasy Limpopo River all set about with fever trees.

The Limpopo River is from Kippling (if I recall correctly The Elephant's Child)

You are correct!

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Ametros wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A large package, with proper postage, that seems to be growling.

A bobcat?

I just ran across this again, and while I don't know if anyone else got it, the correct answer just struck me: Taz The Tasmanian Devil, as shown in the three or four different Looney Tunes in which he's being shipped to a zoo and delivered to someone such as Bugs or Daffy by mistake.

No, it was the bobcat.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

A plastic tiara and matching plastic scepter, a small pouch filled with a strange dried herb, and a hand-sewn sailor fuku fitted for a woman 12' (~4m) tall and having a size 60G chest (US measurements, and no I'm not kidding, they never give an exact figure for her, ah, figure, but the size is in keeping with how she appears). There are claw marks on it. If tested, the herb turns out to be aconite, specifically the flowers and leaves.

"Peter is the wolf" Webcomic. Not safe for work.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Also: a large marble pedestal, with two broken feet from a larger than life marble statue on top, and an inscription in hieroglyphics.

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.

NJM1564 wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

A plastic tiara and matching plastic scepter, a small pouch filled with a strange dried herb, and a hand-sewn sailor fuku fitted for a woman 12' (~4m) tall and having a size 60G chest (US measurements, and no I'm not kidding, they never give an exact figure for her, ah, figure, but the size is in keeping with how she appears). There are claw marks on it. If tested, the herb turns out to be aconite, specifically the flowers and leaves.

"Peter is the wolf" Webcomic. Not safe for work.

Yes , and yes. There is a 'safe' version of the series, which usually shifts to some parallel part of the story whenever sexy times occur, but even that's pretty risque. The 'Adult' version? Pretty much pure sex comedy, emphasis on sex.

Also, it isn't the only yiffy reference in that list. What can I say? I'm an equal-opportunity perv (and not the kind with scales and magitek).

The costume is made for her full Lycanthrope form, which is most often seen naked due to it destroying her clothes; her human form is a petite 5' 5" (167cm), so there isn't really any way for her to make clothing that will fit in both forms with any non-magical fabric. Some other werefolk in the series, such as Peter, Jean, Cherry Li (were-racoon-dog), and Dan (were-rat), can usually wear ordinary clothes as long as they are loose, and Butch is shown making clothing that can fit while still being tight and revealing (though apparently some of the fabrics don't work out), but nudity is sort of a thing for werefolk in the series - most therianthropes get larger, though the only one who grows anything close to what Sarah does is the werebear, Hal.

This left poor Cherry feeling rather inadequate, as all of the other female werefolk were considerably better endowed in their furry forms. It doesn't help that when they met, Sarah, a huge anime fan, started gushing over the 'tanuki', much to Cherry's disgust (she's not Japanese - her family is from China, and she's lived in the US her whole life herself - and finds it incredibly insulting and annoying when people make that connection). But since Ashley, the were-fox vixen, started getting competitive over cleavage at the same time, it... well, it got awkward .

Unfortunately, since she was infected by knocking boots with the ill-informed Peter, rather than growing up as a werewolf, Sarah has pretty much no control over how she changes. The wolfsbane helps control changing, but she needs a massive dose compared to everyone else. Fortunately, she tends to act less like a rampaging werewolf and more like an oversized (and oversexed) puppy - a quarter ton of playful canine looking to, ah, bury Peter's bone, as it were. Still, she's a danger, both of harming someone and of revealing the existence of werefolk, so Peter has been tasked with keeping her under wraps - and if he doesn't, it will cost both of their lives.

OtherEric wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Also: a large marble pedestal, with two broken feet from a larger than life marble statue on top, and an inscription in hieroglyphics.

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.

You are correct, sir!

Sir Lee wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

A glass containing a drink which could kill a herd of cows at 100 paces.

Is that a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster? Or maybe a glass of scumble?

Not either of those, but you're getting close. Really close.

Sir Lee wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Oh, and Sir Lee, are the clockwork devices the watches owned by The White Rabbit and The Mad Hatter? I really doubt it, but you did say arguably more famous than WOOz, which made me think the it was Wonderland instead.

I didn't say "more famous", I did say "arguably bigger." As in a more important work. Let me put it this way: far more people are familiar with "Harry Potter" than with Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey... but, culturally speaking, which of them is the "bigger thing"?
And no, it's not the White Rabbit's watch. Note that I didn't say "clock" or "watch", I did say "clockwork", and that one was missing.

Fair enough. I was pretty sure it wasn't, especially since (as you said) you described it as clockwork rather than as clocks per se... but that does give us more to go on, if only by process of elimination. However, the 'significant vs famous' comment has me deeply puzzled, as I quite honestly cannot think of culturally significant work involving clockwork mechanisms which would not also be of considerable fame... especially since clockwork wouldn't have held a significant cultural hold prior to, say. the mid 18th century. Though having said that, for some reason I am now thinking it could be from Gulliver's Travels, specifically as some of the devices used in Laputa, but I don't recall any mention of something like that for all their self-ascribed technical and intellectual prowess. I am also wondering if I need to read de Bergerac's The Other World, but... while it is sometimes called the first science fiction story*, it really is sort of obscure, the sort of thing that historians like to dig up as a prototypical example despite it having little actual impact. Also, as far as I know it doesn't mention clockwork (light than air flight and rocketry, yes, but not clockwork), so I really doubt that too.

OK, I'm still stumped. I am pretty sure I am going in a very wrong direction, and I'm even questioning if this is referring to a work of fiction at all, or if it is something of a more historical nature. Perhaps some ancient Greek handiwork a la the Antikythera Mechanism? I can imagine something found, say, sealed up in a cave on Sicily (not far from Syracuse, of course, because the AM was almost certainly a product of the students of Archimedes). Or... in the same area but even older? Say, from Atlantis? Or another work of the Telechines? Or should we consult Knick-knack, perhaps? And the Kwazarim and Chinese (especially in the Southern Song period) had fairly sophisticated clockworks too, so... sigh I am really grasping at straws now.

* (By those who don't give precedence to earlier works such as Somnium by Kepler, The New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, or even Dante's The Divine Comedy - I really think Niven and Pournelle were reaching with that claim, and even if it did fit, Lucian's A True History was a thousand years earlier and fits even better.)

Oh, it is famous all right... so famous that the name of the work is pretty synonymous with the concept. It's just that, like the Homer works, most people are aware of it without having actually gone to the original source.
OK, let me nudge it a bit more... I'm frankly amused about people not figuring it out:

A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."

Let's parse it a bit. There's a warning to not wind up the things because they are irreplaceable. Which suggests that if you wind up one of them, something will happen to it, and you will have one less of them. Yet there are no remains of the missing one with the set...

Actually, let me repost the set... the only ones I think are pretty obscure are the second, third and last one. The others SHOULD be recognizable to this crowd...

1. A CBN container with some odd, but otherwise harmless-looking bluish-green cereal.
2. A labrys (two-headed axe) with a severed hand still grasping the handle.
3. A globe (yes, the sort used on geography classes) that instead of countries, is covered by thousands of small figures carrying protest signs.
4. A small metal box, with very sophisticated liquid shock absorbing on the inside, containing a small silvery ball a few centimeters in diameter.
5. A box a bit larger than an old-fashioned Walkman, with a strong belt attached. Other than some control buttons of unclear purpose, its only feature is a metal ring protruding from one side.
6. A set of clockwork mechanisms, about the size of a pocket watch. There's one obviously missing, and a note: "do not wind up any more of these until we figure out how they work -- they are irreplaceable."
7. A crumpled piece of paper which clearly has something written on it (parts of the writing are visible). However, when one smooths the paper, it becomes impossible to tell what's written.
8. A plush toy rabbit, colored blue, with its ears tied in a knot. If you open the zipper on the back, you find out that there's a brick inside it.

A collection of oversized bronze coins, each about 6cm in diameter and 3mm thick, inscribed with Phoenician letters. There is a note from Ms. Grimes stating that no students, nor any faculty from her department, are to ever be allowed to handle these or try to read the inscriptions. It also explains that there is another one of them locked in a safe in the departmental office in case of a dire emergency.

A 3.5m cube. On each side is a sigil or logo showing a series of spiral rays with a solid line going top to bottom through the center of it. There is large display panel on one side, as well as what what appear to be a speaker and a microphone. A chair is set in front of the display.

A 20 cm x 15cm x 10cm box with a fist-sized opening on one side, and what appears to be a finger ornament with a needle at the fingertip.

Several boxes of silver bullets, in .45 APC, 9mm, and 7.62x39mm calibers, along with several hand grenades. The grenades don't detonate, and the bullets won't fire if loaded into a gun. There is also a jewelers' loupe and polishing rag stuck into one of the boxes.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 20 cm x 15cm x 10cm box with a fist-sized opening on one side, and what appears to be a finger ornament with a needle at the fingertip.

Several boxes of silver bullets, in .45 caliber, and 7.25mm, along with several hand grenades. The grenades don't detonate, and the bullets won't fire if loaded into a gun. There is also a jewelers' loupe and polishing rag stuck into one of the boxes.

The first is the Gom Jabbar from Dune, a pain induction device used by the Bene Gesserit order to test one's level of mental discipline. The 'finger ornament' is loaded with a deadly toxin, for those who fail.

The second lot belong to Corwin of Amber, one of the Nine Princes in Amber. The grenades and bullets are loaded with Avalonian's jeweler's rouge, which explodes like gunpowder in Avalon, the only known substance to do so. The silver bullets are to kill Morgenstern, Julian's unnatural horse, which hates Corwin, and can only be killed with a silver bullet.

Sir Lee wrote:

A crumpled piece of paper which clearly has something written on it (parts of the writing are visible). However, when one smooths the paper, it becomes impossible to tell what's written.

This isn't the note Mr. Verres left on the refrigerator, is it? I am going to kick myself for missing it before, if it is.

Sir Lee wrote: A plush toy rabbit, colored blue, with its ears tied in a knot. If you open the zipper on the back, you find out that there's a brick inside it.

Damn, that sounds so familiar. It also sounds like something Seanan had in a game sometimes, as a prop for her Malkavian Elder character, and I am pretty sure she re-developed Ophelia for her novels later but I still need to read them, damn it, now I feel like I've been a terrible friend to her.

Also, in a similar vein, a sock with half a brick in it. I expect everyone here to get this one.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: I probably should let this go, but:

• A large paper punch machine stenciled "property of D. Sokol". There is a punched paper tape threaded into it, with the words "PC '76 demo tape" written in pencil on the unpunched section. A bag with several new, unpunched tapes is hung on side of the machine. (Note that this is an historical reference rather than a literary one, and is specifically related to the First World Altair Conference - though it turns out that the actual event didn't take place there after all.)

The fabled 'stolen' copies of Altair BASIC, and the book "Hackers" (published 1984) are still both before my time. The first computer on which I'd programmed anything was a PC XT clone (c. 1988)

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

A bar of a gray-silvery metal that is warm to the touch. You think it might be platinum, but you don't want to hold on to it just the same. Goes along with a 3m long velvet cloak in royal blue, with three suspensor disks unobtrusively stitched into the folded part opposite the clasp. (These are both from a short story about the balance between freedom and safety, by an author I've mentioned several times here already. Also, the word 'cloak' is a hint on the title.)

Turns out the bars were platinum after all! From Cloak of Anarchy

I'd held them in the palm of my hand. They were heavier than lead. Platinum? But nobody carries that much platinum around. Joking, I'd asked, "U-235?"

"Are they warm?" he'd asked apprehensively. I'd fought off an urge to throw them as far as I could and dive behind a couch.

But they had been platinum. I never did learn why Ron was carrying them about. Something that didn't pan out.

Plutonium would have been warm, that's why it's used in satellite RTGs.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 2 ton bale of marijuana that sets off dosimeters and Geiger counters as they approach it. I probably should have dropped this one, it's only been a few weeks and already the reference is painfully dated)

The idea's been floating around since at least 1996. Now we just need to get our hands on some of that sweet North Korean bud

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A life preserver from the SS Pumpkin Pie. Abandon ship!

WOG states Harry/Hermione would have been a better match-up than Harry/Ginny.

S.S. Leather & Libraries still has a few gems in the cargo hold.

YESS! Yes yes yes yes yes! Thank you! Thank you both!

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Also, in a similar vein, a sock with half a brick in it. I expect everyone here to get this one.

perfect for knocking out Sourcerors!

Kettlekorn wrote: A toy-sized space ship crewed by very tiny flea-sized four-legged humanoids. Their legs are all side-by-side in a line, not in a quad arrangement, and two googly eyes sit atop their inverted-cone heads.

An orange-suited puppet with rosy cheeks, a gold tooth, a blue T-shirt worn over the suit, a gold necklace, and a backwards baseball cap.

A terrible little rectangular robot with long arms, wheels, and green, buglike eyes. It really is terrible. Solved by Arcanist Lupus: Boxbot

Two flat 1-foot diameter disks connected by a two-segment rod hinged in the center and both ends. The top surfaces of the disks feature an inner circle that is black on one half of the circle and white on the other, with the background of the outer circle featuring the opposite color.

A talking chameleon wearing a fez.

A device that looks like a blaster but fires hockey pucks. Solved by Cryptic: Puck Blaster from the Mighty Ducks cartoon.

A small chest of yellow metal containing an unusual magenta gemstone.

A pair of shoes, red at the heels and toes but yellow in the midsections, with green cuffs.

A salt shaker. It smells faintly of alcohol and bears a Mexican brand.

Sir Lee wrote: Could be from anywhere in Mexico they serve tequila...

Well, yes, but as this one is in the lost and found, there must be somebody out there who is missing it...


New items:

Yet another cube. This one is eight feet across, has rounded corners, and is covered in tubing and painted symbols. There's an opening in one side through which a person could fit. The interior is smooth, softly lit, and a lovely shade of green. There's some kind of instrumentation on one wall.

A two foot wide drone, the bulk of which consists of a single squat, vertically oriented turbine. The off-white housing has several flanges, and a pair of pincer like manipulator arms reach forward from the lower portion of the housing.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: A plush toy rabbit, colored blue, with its ears tied in a knot. If you open the zipper on the back, you find out that there's a brick inside it.

Damn, that sounds so familiar. It also sounds like something Seanan had in a game sometimes, as a prop for her Malkavian Elder character, and I am pretty sure she re-developed Ophelia for her novels later but I still need to read them, damn it, now I feel like I've been a terrible friend to her.

Let me just say that this is only hard because you aren't Brazilians. If I asked any random person on the street down here to identify it, it's way more than even chance that they wouldn't even blink before giving the correct answer. Even if I removed some of the details, such as the brick and the knotted ears. "Blue plush rabbit" would be enough for the average Brazilian. "Plush rabbit" would be considered an "easy" hint. That's HOW BIG this is around here.

A box of green wafers. The ingredients list has an allergy alert: "Product contains sapien-based proteins"

Rose Bunny wrote: A box of green wafers. The ingredients list has an allergy alert: "Product contains sapien-based proteins"

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!

Kettlekorn wrote: A terrible little rectangular robot with long arms, wheels, and green, buglike eyes. It really is terrible.

While I don't know what this is, but I'll see your Terrible Little Toy and raise you a Terrifying one:



Bethancourt wasn't the original songwriter, but this was the version I was able to find. On a related note, here's a song both he and several others claim is the honest turth:

Two small decorations in the shape of ringed planets. If placed on one's shoulders, they stay there, hovering about half a centimeter from the top of the shoulder no matter how the person moves. They also each have a small stud on the bottom which could be pressed.

Don't press the studs. You really, really don't want to press them. Trust me.

Nearby are a pair of size 500 boots, two chainsaws, and freezer box containing a roasted duck. One of the chainsaws is yellow and has stickers on it in both English and French.

The remains of a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias.

The ringed-planet decorations seem like the rank badges in "Schlock Mercenary."

As for the remnants of the sperm whale and bowl of petunias... if the finite improbability generator works with a cup of tea, does the infinite improbability generator in the Heart of Gold requires something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea? That would explain a few things...

Schol-R-LEA wrote: On a related note, here's a song both he and several others claim is the honest turth:

Trude Lacklandia , "Sable, a domestic cat couchant guardant chased argent.", was knighted in 1977 in Atenveldt, the same SCA kingdom that Ioseph of Locksley was active in for so many years.

Going by one awards listing (from Trimaris, which was part of the East Kingdom ceded to Atenveldt before Meridies was established - SCA geography through time can get weird) , she was active in the East Kingdom c. 1974-1975, so it's possible she'd be walking through or past Central Park wearing a mail shirt, before being knighted. However, there's nothing to prevent her from going to New York after March 1977, in which case the songwriter would have heard of the event shortly after it happened, and probably first-hand.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote: A terrible little rectangular robot with long arms, wheels, and green, buglike eyes. It really is terrible.

While I don't know what this is, but I'll see your Terrible Little Toy and raise you a Terrifying one:

Hahaha, awesome (and so is the other one). But in this case terrible is being used in the sense of lousy, not frightful, though I think everybody can agree that this bot is frightfully lousy.

Rose Bunny wrote: The remains of a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias.

Well, that's what happens when you over-drive an Improbability Drive (from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Kettlekorn wrote: A terrible little rectangular robot with long arms, wheels, and green, buglike eyes. It really is terrible.

Boxbot is pretty terrible. Why couldn't he be Robox instead?

Sir Lee wrote: The ringed-planet decorations seem like the rank badges in "Schlock Mercenary."

Specifically Kevyn's epaulettes, one of which can kill tanks, and the other removes the shield-piercing charge and replaces it with extra anti-matter.

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote: A terrible little rectangular robot with long arms, wheels, and green, buglike eyes. It really is terrible.

Boxbot is pretty terrible. Why couldn't he be Robox instead?

Yep, that's the one! I actually built my own Boxbot, once upon a time. Then I realized what a bad idea that was and promptly dismantled it.

The blaster that shoots hockey pucks comes from the Might Ducks cartoon series.

I found a new object! It's green, hangs on a wall, and whistles.

A bottle of strangely hued intoxicating beverage. Even with the correct Data, not much is known about it beyond the color...

Rose Bunny wrote: A bottle of strangely hued intoxicating beverage. Even with the correct Data, not much is known about it beyond the color...

"It is ... It is ... It is green"



Possibly found on Gany Room ... um, Ganymede

That can't be right. She doesn't arrive at Whateley until October.

Found: Robot Dog, possibly from Croydon. Has an affirmative attitude, but a nasty "bite"- according to some. Do not allow into the school kitchen.

Cryptic wrote: The blaster that shoots hockey pucks comes from the Might Ducks cartoon series.

Yup!

A transforming robot made of cubes.

NJM1564 wrote: A transforming robot made of cubes.

Cubix

Ah but the WA lost and found functions as a Tardis.... Things lost in 2097 may well be found in 1977, But you wouldn't even know they were spoilers... Except for the universe...

Rose Bunny wrote: A bottle of strangely hued intoxicating beverage. Even with the correct Data, not much is known about it beyond the color...

The actual name of the beverage is Aldebaran Whiskey

yes, and Picard gave it to Guinan

sigh I know there was something else I wanted to put, but I can't remember... I'll probably wake up recalling at 3 AM and forget it again by the time I get to my computer. In the meanwhile, have these.

A wine bottle with a beverage which when consumed causes any hallucinations the drinker is having to take physical form. The label is mostly unreadable, but at the bottom on can make out the phrase "Imported by Drunquard & Fillestein's of Cynosure, 2432+5i".

A dissertation on the topic of statistical social psychology and its application regarding the future disposition of galactic society.

A flag with 8 red and white horizontal stripes, and in an upper corner, a square field of black containing one large blue seven-pointed star, one smaller red star, and one still smaller white star.

A wooden silverware chest with the crest of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Inside is a large collection of aluminum fondue forks and runcible spoons, also bearing the Imperial crest in hand-painted enamel.

A polearm with two sword-like blades arranged in a fork.

A meerschaum pipe inscribed with the words "cece n'est pas une image".

Two acoustic guitars. The older one is a classic six string and bears a hand-written label that reads, "This machine kills fascists". The newer, larger one is a 12-string with a bandoleer strap bearing a Starfleet insignia design, and threaded into the strings up toward the top of the fretboard is a pick labeled "I.W.W."

A fist-sized metal orange jack o'lantern with a wick at the top.

A six pack of 5000 kilo-calorie Energy Drink.

(KEEP AWAY FROM TINK!!!)

Isn't a kilo-calorie just a food calorie? A 5,000 calorie energy drink is still absurd, though.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: .
Two acoustic guitars. The older one is a classic six string and bears a hand-written label that reads, "This machine kills fascists". The newer, larger one is a 12-string with a bandoleer strap bearing a Starfleet insignia design, and threaded into the strings up toward the top of the fretboard is a pick labeled "I.W.W."

I'm not sure about the rest, but the first guitar belonged to legendary Folkie Woody Guthrie; not sure about the second one, it might belong to his son, Arlo.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A wine bottle with a beverage which when consumed causes any hallucinations the drinker is having to take physical form. The label is mostly unreadable, but at the bottom on can make out the phrase "Imported by Drunquard & Fillestein's of Cynosure, 2432+5i".

Old Mink? Served at Munden's, although the artwork usually shows John drinking Old Piss.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A dissertation on the topic of statistical social psychology and its application regarding the future disposition of galactic society.

Didn't that get Hari Seldon put on trial for treason? Some foundation.

NJM1564 wrote: A transforming robot made of cubes.

I was thinking it was a Teselecta.

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A wine bottle with a beverage which when consumed causes any hallucinations the drinker is having to take physical form. The label is mostly unreadable, but at the bottom on can make out the phrase "Imported by Drunquard & Fillestein's of Cynosure, 2432+5i".

Old Mink? Served at Munden's, although the artwork usually shows John drinking Old Piss.

You beat me to it. Grim Jack/ Munden's Bar is one of my all time favorite comics; the combo of the lead feature/ backup to build the world is really just unlike any other comic I've ever read.

A large fireplace littered with glass shards. The shards appear to come mostly from beer glasses.

A post-it note documenting an obscure item which has been found.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A large fireplace littered with glass shards. The shards appear to come mostly from beer glasses.

Callahan's?

Valentine wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A large fireplace littered with glass shards. The shards appear to come mostly from beer glasses.

Callahan's?

With Arcanist Lupus's sig that would seem to be the obvious choice, but I always figured the glass would mostly be from shots, since you would need to chug the whole beer before throwing the glass you would be less likely to use it unless the toast-comment-whatever absolutely required you joining.

Then again, I'm allergic to alcohol, so my actual experience with drinking establishments is very minimal. (I've spent more hours in my life reading the Callahan books than in actual bars, even if I do sometimes join friends.)

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A large fireplace littered with glass shards. The shards appear to come mostly from beer glasses.

How do you lose a fireplace so it gets sent to the Lost & Found office?

I also recognized Olde Mink, but to be accurate the story didn't claim that it was capable of making hallucinations solid all by itself; it was rather a combination of Old Mink, the interdimensional natura of Cynosure.and possibly Murray's altered body chemistry (although the same story shows other people having solid hallucinations after drinking Old Mink). And anyway, the D.T.s didn't dare leaving Munden's because they feared not existing anywhere else. So it might not work that way at Whateley -- although it's high-proof content could be an interesting challenge for 'Shine to reproduce, and probably could keep Sam running for years and years like the Energizer Bunny on a single shot.

My outstanding ones are getting pretty old... if I don't get any more guesses in the next week or so, I think I'll just give out the solutions.

Valentine wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: A large fireplace littered with glass shards. The shards appear to come mostly from beer glasses.

Callahan's?

Yeah.

As to shots vs beer glasses - I don't drink either, so I have no idea.