Lost and Found Oddity
I dare any of you to top this gem currently in our lost and found:
I'm told it's used to drink tea. Just to give you a peek into my mind, I assumed at first that it was used to smoke stuff, but I couldn't figure out how, especially with the straw part looking like this:
But I am sure it is possible.
Got anything strange in your lost and found? And when I say strange, it has to be so unusual that you have to explain what it is. I mean we've all had hula hoops, dumb bells, and underwear in lost and found. That's ho-hum. I'm talking about WEIRD stuff. Stuff that is so out of the norm that you can't believe a person forgot to take it with them or come back to get it. This has been in lost and found since April 9th.
Also if you can tell me what this thing is called, where it's from, or how someone could forget to take it with them, I will electronically kiss you.
I'm told it's used to drink tea. Just to give you a peek into my mind, I assumed at first that it was used to smoke stuff, but I couldn't figure out how, especially with the straw part looking like this:
But I am sure it is possible.
Got anything strange in your lost and found? And when I say strange, it has to be so unusual that you have to explain what it is. I mean we've all had hula hoops, dumb bells, and underwear in lost and found. That's ho-hum. I'm talking about WEIRD stuff. Stuff that is so out of the norm that you can't believe a person forgot to take it with them or come back to get it. This has been in lost and found since April 9th.
Also if you can tell me what this thing is called, where it's from, or how someone could forget to take it with them, I will electronically kiss you.
Labels: Lost and Found
posted by Vampire Librarian at 6:32 PM
18 Comments:
I do believe that's for drinking mate (has an accent on the e, but I'm not sophisticated enough to key that) - 'fraid I don't know it's name. South American.
Sadly,the oddities we find are more of the "public health hazard" variety. I'd love to find an interesting artifact like you have there for a change...
As anonymous said it is for drinking yerba mate, the straw is called a 'Bombilla' and the container a calabash gourd. Thank you Wikipedia.
wiki
My library must be a rarity as we have never had a lost and found (lucky!)
Edward
Well, anonymous and Edward Shaddow, you'll have to share this. Enjoy!
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And how can you get away without a lost and found? That's like half our job it seems sometimes.
I brought up some kid's laptop, iPod, and sweatpants tonight. He'd just left them in an unlocked study room. The laptop wasn't even plugged in. He'll freak when he sees them gone, but I have to wonder what he thought would happen when he just left all his expensive electronics sitting on a table. And I wonder what he's wearing, since we got his sweatpants.
Depends on the type of library, I think. I expect that college/university libraries have a lot more stuff in lost and found than other types.
The public library I worked at had a lost and found, which filled up about every couple weeks. I got the lovely job of digging through it once a week to get rid of stuff that'd been there more than a month. We didn't have stuff as interesting as your yerba mate thing...but lots of things that had me running for the soap.
a month, if its good stuff I wait a week and then it might just vanish. We had a pair of brand new Oakley sunglasses turned in yesterday morning, next Monday they move into the "holding tank" in my office, summer gets here they are gone.
I work at a U library does anyone else do a raffle type deal for items (that are there at the end of the semester) with their student workers. We did a kind of Chinese Christmas deal and it seemed to go well. Any morale bumps with college kids not getting paid well is good for their boss
Raffling to the student workers is a good idea...at the public library I worked at, we got rid of lost and found items after 1 month...and the staff always got first shot at whatever was being removed.
At the university library I worked at, I know that often at the end of a semester, there would be a table of items that had been left in the lost and found, and anyone (anyone student, staff, public) who wanted to, could snag stuff from the table. I don't know, but would assume that staff/student workers would have gotten first shot at those...although I think I saw an mp3 player once...not sure how that managed to stick around long enough for me to see.
I work in a hospital library and when going through the lost and foind, shortly after I started here, I found a model of a foot skeleton, complete with its own little stand. Quite the conversation starter.
Gardenbuzzy, I can bet that hospital libraries get a lot of interesting stuff left behind. Have you found anything in jars?
The most interesting thing I've ever had in lost and found were boots. Hiking boots left here in January.
I thought the yerba mate thing was for smoking something too. It's cute.
Our library doesn't have an "official" Lost and Found dept. either. We're a library for the blind so our books are in audio format which we post out to the clients. This means they use the books at home. In interesting places judging by the "things" we find in returned items. Bandaids, toenail clippings, hair (you make up your own mind about which variety it is - we choose to not think about it too much) and all kinds of sticky, smelly and altogether unpleasant "residues". I swear I found someone's melanoma in a copy of "Wuthering Heights". There was much "ewwww-ing" and dancing the gross dance that day. Be thankful if you just find cute little pots.
No, Vampire, I've not seen anything in jars yet (knock on wood), but I did find a travel case thingy with snacks, men's cologne, deodorant, toothbrush, all kinds of curiosities in it. We wondered how the person was getting along without it. We also found a container of men's cologne/aftershave stuff with the name Ripped Abs or some such. I don't think I want to know...
I work the ref. desk of a public library and last night at closing I found a used earwax cleaning kit. Yes, you read right, used!!! EEEWWWW..... It was next to one of corner computers.
One night at closing I found the remains of someone either hand rolling cigarettes or making joints - papers, filling and all - I just didn't get close enough to tell the difference before I was running for the librarian in charge (I was a page at the time.) It was in one of our chairs in the magazine section.
We've found some pretty gross stuff left in our library. I think the tops right now is a very dirty bottle of "wild sex massage oil." Why bring it to the library? Why have it out? And why leave it??????? Not to mention we're at a very conservative church-owned school...
Anon, that is just too perfect.
Condoms (used and new) have been left in various parts, but no sexual aides. I guess my students are too vanilla.
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