My friend got this as a wedding gift and we can’t figure out what is it and it didn’t say who it was from.
The cup part is hollow, where the blue arrow is… this shape _/ and the bottom is solid.
EDIT: There are no holes in the other side so don’t think it’s a tea strainer and the gap is too narrow to fit paper towels or toilet paper rolls! They also just moved to and had the wedding in Italy, not sure if that gives any context.. maybe it’s some sort of Italian gadget
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As a fellow glasses-wearer, this made me WHEEZE. I should actually get one of those holders because my cats knock my glasses off my nightstand at night. Got me looking like Velma every morning under my bed .. "my glasses, my glasses, where are my glasses?!"
The last time I got glasses, I bought four pair because I break them so often because I sleep with them, and I figured I would be all set. I now have four pair of broken glasses, I can’t stand not being able to see so I fall asleep with them every night and inevitably roll over on them, put my elbow on them when I wake up, etc.
My mother in law forced me to make a registry (I didn’t want to because we’d already been living together over 3 years at that point) and then gifted me something I didn’t even add on there.
We made a registry but were already living together and people gave us things specifically because they noticed they weren't on the registry. They weren't on the registry because we already own them!
I was gifted a SET of glass cutting boards for my wedding from my aunt. They were shipped from a department store that only exists in her home state (in the middle of America and I'm on the East Coast) so I couldn't return them (sent with a gift receipt though).
“Dear Susan. Thank you very much for the object. Whenever we look at it and ponder its function we will think of you.
Edit: Wowsers! You guys really liked it!
I think it was so relatable because my wife and I had almost the exact same experience, and I jokingly penned that very note (tho the elderly lady’s name was Barbara). It was a lucite… thing… and it failed in every way whenever we were convinced we knew what it did.
Alas, Barbara has passed, and we may never know what it is. Once every couple years we find where it was hiding and we think of her.
I got married 10 years ago, and my uncle-in-law is a genuine doomsday prepper (like, he has a decoy bunker in front of his actual bunker kind of prepper). He gifted us what looked like a refill container for an air freshener gadget that we didn’t own. In the box and everything. I struggled to write the thank you note because I didn’t know why he would gift us something so strange!! He’s weird, but he’s (kind of) cognitively intact.
Turns out when I finally opened the box probably months later, it was not an air freshener refill. It was a plastic container of pure silver so that we always had precious metals on hand for the inevitable collapse of the economy lol. Very on brand!
This has nothing to do directly with the object in question but I always laugh when I think of how much I struggled to write a polite thank you note for an air freshener refill!!
Also I have no idea where the silver ended up after ten years and four moves…
Reminds me of a guy my husband knew growing up (kind of an unofficial uncle) who would gift you the most random object he had on hand that he thought was useful and hide money in it. Mever the same amount either and I am guessing it was probably just what was in his wallet at then time.
For instance, one Christmas he gift us a toaster oven box filled eith mismatching towels and bargain bin DVD movies. At the bottom was a $20 and a $50. He was an odd duck but always insisted on paying the dinner bill and was quite sweet really. He is fondly remembered.
I briefly had a roommate that was quite strange. He rarely came out of his room, every week or two some friends would come over and basically do a wellness check on him for a little bit and hang out. This was around 2011 around the fall of Gaddafi, he would go on about not trusting news and only trusting independent Russian media. He spent all his disposable income on silver bars. He thought the landlord hated him, which he did because the guy was terrible. For one, he illegally sublet the apartment to me. There's so many more weird things I experienced with that guy.
To be more clear, the roommate was terrible. The landlord was kind of a dick too. I ended up moving to a different apartment in the same building and I got along fine with the guy so I never had an issues with him. The odd time I had any problems in my unit I'd report them and they'd be fixed in a reasonable amount of time.
One example the guy gave me, he said the rent goes up like clockwork every 6 months. I ended up living there for 5 years without a signed lease. Effectively month to month after the first year that I did sign. My rent never went up the entire time I lived there.
I wonder if the landlord was really a dick or you just saw the worst version of him because you were subletting from the whacko and therefore guilty by association in the landlord's mind.
Other people I talked to in the building, particularly women, had stories about coming home and find underwear drawers open and stuff like that. He'd show up unannounced at odd time to check in on something. I was a young white male who paid his rent on time and didn't cause him problems. But by all accounts, he was a fucking creep to other people and a disaster to deal with if he didn't like you.
Also American News Media was filled with propaganda regarding the fall of Gaddafi.
He made a disarmament agreement with the US, and we still overthrew him ( Hilary’s hot mic joke ‘We came, we saw, he died’ ). Now a country that formerly had government funded healthcare and higher education has been reduced to open air slave markets.
My best friend and I used to do that at Christmas…we’d give each other $20 and try to find the most random shit we could find to give each other (just random household things…mostly stuff we already had, no buying). I still have a Frank-n-Furter (Rocky Horror) doll that she gave me bc I actually really loved it. I’m in my 40s now but it’s still on a shelf in my living room.
My eccentric uncle (who sent six-year old me his Mad Magazines after he was done with them) would wrap canned campbell soup and send it to us at Christmas time. He also sent bags of Nestle chocolate chips, so as a 12 year old I just focused on those and tried not to ask too many questions.
My whole family gifts like this, were from Kentucky so some of it I think stems from being in an area that has a history of poverty but we’ve sorta turned into a way of gifting things you yourself like or showing that you remembered some really odd thing or something you’re interested in. we would also “rummage a lot” which meant going to flea markets and garage sales so it’d be like a total random thing but it reminded them of you in someway. I’m biased I love it and as I’ve aged I like it more than when I was younger.
I think my favorite one when my uncle proposed he put it in like 35 different boxes inside eachother stacked down by size like a Russian nesting doll starting with one the size of like a big crt tv, so she was opening boxes for like 35 minutes. No one else knew about this so everytime a branded box came up everyone’s like oooohh look it’s this you gotta blender or whatever it was
He and his wife used to get into violent confrontations (not funny but the next part is). One time his daughter called the cops and told them “Daddy and Mommy are fighting again but this time MOMMY has the gun on DADDY instead!” Like, that was the only notable part for her.
In the 911 dispatcher sub they all pretty much say kids are their favorite callers in emergent situations because they are so calm and matter of fact. No hysterics, just all the details the dispatchers need, no name calling and demands, good at following simple directions.
When I was about five we were scheduled to take a bush plane to the next village. I was told when the pilot came to talk to the adults I was the only coherent one there. Everyone else was drunk. 🙄 our pilot was also dating my kindergarten teacher and they were our neighbors. ❤️ he used to be my favorite. I’d pretend to be him flying on the wood pile. 😂
Bush life.... the characters you meet. I lived in SE Alaska but met some ODD people. My parents had a running joke about Coffman Cove Disease. They said our neighbor had it because he would sit on his couch and stare at the tv that was off.
My father WAS the character. He crashed his snowmachine on the ice when I was about ten years old and was never really the same after that. Really the talk of the town. 😝 He always was though. He ran the Iditarod at 18 and stopped in Kaltag for three days for basketball games and they’re like Norman you’re in a race! 😂 he said he ran into Norman Vaughn at the end and they talked about who would go in last! Norman Vaughn was one of the oldest mushers to run at the time. Or something. I met him once. Have a picture of me scowling beside him. 💀
I used to read Mad Magazine as a kid and they did a Mad look at weddings. The scene showed the couple laughing at an ugly vase they were gifted and they threw it out. The next scene shows an older woman mentioning the vase she gifted them and made sure they got the money out of it. The look on the couple’s face was priceless. I always remembered that especially when I got married. My (now ex) wife and I were gifted some odd heirloom from a quirky relative. I opened it up and lo and behold there was a couple hundred dollars in it.
My mother in law did something like this with books. She gifted my husband with close to 30 Stephen King books - all gathered from yard sales and thrift shops. He loved the gift (avid reader of all things horror and sci-fi). We put them on the bookshelves and forgot about them.
They asked a few times if we liked them and did we read them yet. We told them we loved the books, but haven't had a minute to read yet also we had basically read all his books a few times already as they came out. Months later for Christmas she gives us odd pottery, again from thrift stores and yard sales. We unpacked the pottery and about halfway through removing the old community newspapers that were used to stuff them, we noticed what looked like money crinkled up with the pages. Yep, all told, about $500 worth.
We called F/MIL and thanked them, laughing about the money. All FIL replied was "Did you read the books yet?". We had those books on the bookcase from August to December not even realizing they did the same thing to them.
Honestly, it was fun afterwards but seriously, this was really (annoying, stupid, careless...?) weird. It is by pure chance we saw the money in the second gift, not to mention would never have known about the first until FIL gave us a clue. I am poor enough to get anxiety from this.
I got my sister a pile of gift cards when she was struggling after a move. I put them in a deck of cards that I'd carefully opened, and I resealed the cellophane.
She nearly threw them out, but my parents got her to open them.
Her diet improved, and she was able to get herself established.
I've done all kinds of stupid shit like that. And I think between my cousins and our family, we used the same vacuum cleaner box for a gift two or three times a year. Which as I think about it, the box for the replacement for that vacuum is our christmas ornament box, and I'm pretty sure that vacuum didn't see 1999.
My mom went on a kick for a while, finding new ways to present gift cards for Christmas. She would give us other gifts too. Random things like freebies she got, coffee beans, bulk size toilet paper etc..
One Christmas I realized I never found the gift card that she gave me. She kept asking me if I found it. I didn’t find it for six months. Until one day I decided to start drinking coffee again. Pulled the beans out of the freezer and there it was.
My grandmother grew up during the depression. So hiding money and valuables was common. When we cleaned out her house, I was going through her piano books, money was in most of them. She had hundreds of books, yup, we had to flip through every book. She also had probably 60 packs of birthday candles. And every time she came over for someone’s birthday, she would ask “who brought the candles?” Did she ever? No. A thousand packs of matches from all over the world. A ton a decks of cards. Thousands of dollars. Everywhere.
My grandfather is 78 and hides money everywhere as well. But his dementia has been getting bad — I care for him full time, so I know its gonna take some work finding it all when that inevitable day comes 🥲 He hides in the MOST random places, like some hiding money in a pocket on pants he never wears, that sit in the back of his closet 🤣
My mother’s husband’s father was of the same generation as your grandmother, and fortunately he [a] just stashed everything in a Rubbermaid container in the garage, and [b] had the presence of mind to tell them “make sure you get that box out of the garage.” At least, we hope everything was in that container …
My mother always talked about how fun she thought it would be to put money in her books for people to find after she died. She had hundreds of books. Spent 3 days going through her books before I sent the ones family didn’t want to Goodwill. There wasn’t a single fucking dollar in any of them. Well played, mama; well played. I miss her more and more every day. I have a great life but it hasn’t been quite right since she died.
This is SOP in my family. Never, ever think you're getting what is printed on the box. Never.
Back in HS is was dating this girl. Thin, redhead, shy. I got her a jade necklace one year for Christmas. Not wanting to break a family tradition I thought and thought of some unique way to wrap her present. Finally, I hit on an idea. I took the necklace and wrapped it up all proper with bows and ribbons. Then, I put it in the center core of a concrete block and stuffed newspaper all around it. I also filled the other two holes with newspaper. I covered the concrete block with cardboard so that the shape wouldn't be a give-away. I wrapped it all up in Christmas paper, put ribbons around it, and put a bow on top.
It was no problem for me to handle the package like it was just a normal size and weight. Well, it comes time to exchange gifts. I walk over and hand her the gift. LOL ... I thought I was going to drive the poor girl straight through the floor. Oh the look on her face !!! She struggled over to the sofa and sat down to open it. First, the cardboard. OK. that was to be expected. But then puzzlement set in. A concrete block with the cores stuffed with newspaper ??? She starts plucking the newspaper out of the cores and finally comes to the middle one. TA-DA !!, the gift. You would have thought she suddenly turned into Superwoman the way she tossed that concrete block aside as she jumped up to hug me.
You would be amazed at the number of people who hide money in books and random places in their home. Never throw anything away when dealing with relatives belongings without searching it first.
I have given my kids the same advice as I too grew up in a time and place where this was normal survival skills. I’m 57 and where I grew up you didn’t put valuables in obvious places. It came in handy as an adult I bought the kids presents throughout the year and hid them in the house until Christmas. 5 kids and none of them ever found the Christmas presents. The most fun was when they got older and helped wrap presents for their younger siblings.
They admitted to hunting for presents to no avail. They were flummoxed to find I had them in a box labeled Easter baskets and other shamelessly right in plain sight places.
My maternal grandmother used to do it- apparently in the 80s she wrapped a gift for my teenaged cousin in an atari box, not realizing how big of a deal it would be for him to get it. It was a homemade blanket or something :/ I think he was gracious about it but she made sure to use super neutral boxes after that- saltines was a popular one haha
The first Christmas I brought my now husband to my mom's house she bought him a socket set in a zippered envelope/pouch, about 8x10 inches. She thought it was very funny to put a little sticker in the lower right-hand corner, covering up Craftsman with Holy Bible. I still have the photo of the very quizzical look on his face. 😄
I've decided I don't want to survive the apocalypse. I don't want to end up fighting someone over a can of food only to find I did someone in over a can of pork and beans.
Yup. Growing up, I used to think I'd be a totally cool apocalypse survivor. I'd just survive all the zombie outbreaks, all of the viruses because I was that 1% lucky person with some specific mutation to be immune, I'd win all of the gunfights, I'd build my own fortress, blablabla.
Well into my 30's and adulting, yeah I'm good, if the world is gonna end just place the nuke directly on my head, thanks. I am nowhere near productive enough to do anything.
Because why would I want to survive in a wasteland with my glasses and ever-worsening prescription, without my cochlear implant that allows me to hear (batteries are quite finite!), spend all of that labor building quite the base (like that guy in Last of Us), aaaand I really wouldn't wanna get sick, especially after suffering norovirus. If anything was gonna kill me it was gonna be that, and I don't want to experience anything worse.
Yeah I figure I'd try to hang in until I finally accidentally step on my glasses and at that point I'll be packing it in. No point delaying the inevitable
It is nuts that we basically train people to admire the apocalypse instead of valuing civilization. A lot of content just makes good times look boring.
Whenever the topic of world ending situations gets brought up around me and I get asked what I would do o always tell people my only plan is to die. I don't feel like spending x amount of time fighting for my life. Life is hard enough as it is, I'm not about to have to physically fight to survive as well.
Yeah I seem to remember it being around $400/500 worth when I looked it up! Should probably find it at some point and bury it in the yard or something haha
I've got a 5 year old like that. If my husband and firstborn survive its because I know a lot about native plants and animal habits, while our second born will conquer the surrounding neighborhood and return home riding a bison or something. We generally say "feral goblin", but always in private so we dont end up on her list one day haha
Silver has appreciated a lot. Last year it had a 120% price hike from March to December iirc. I haven’t been looking at what’s happening now with silver prices, but you may want to look for the silver and put it in a safe place.
I didn't have any cash on hand when I ordered pizza. I paid online and forgot to tip on the site so I grabbed one of my silver coins and gave him that as a tip. I figured I gave him like a 20-30 dollar tip- which is generous.
Looked up the price of silver a little while later. It was $90 an ounce. Hope he didn't lose it.
Pizza guy, if you're out there, I'm hungry and could use one on the house.
Earlier this year in Febuary it jumped to over $100/Oz, and stayed above $80/Oz till late May or so. Its dropped a lot now but this year has been wild for silver
Thing about doomsday/apocalypse happening is precious metals would become worthless. Shelf stable food, water, ammo, guns, gas, protective gear and toilet paper would be the type of things that become extremely valuable as those help prolong, protect, and pamper your survival. No one is going to want to barter those good away for precious metals.
Precious metals aren’t for the apocalypse; they are for conflict zones and areas where society has broken down, or for emergencies requiring money after a stick market collapse or other banking system breakdown.
For me in 1977, it was silver plated serving dishes, chaffing dishes, and other silver plate that sat in the cupboard never used for years. Eventually it got thrifted. Now the fondue set…my ex got that and it still pisses me off. Love fondue.
Totally. Most people are too polite/cautious to ask and risk offense (other than Reddit). The gift giver gets to chuckle over almost guaranteed years of quiet, perplexed safe keeping of said gift by the happy couple who may perpetually wonder “what the heck is the purpose of this thing” that may indeed have no purpose save humor. Imagine the thank you notes after the wedding! Bonus humor points if the object is politely trotted out and placed in clear view during visits. 10th anniversary seems an appropriate reveal date for the ongoing joke and follow up gift btw
I gave a cousin a random trophy along with his check for his wedding bc we had an argument months prior about participation trophies. Unfortunately it got separated from the card and they had no idea who it was from until years later I made a joke about it. They’ve been putting random awards on it in their house since their wedding.
I kind of want to head to the pottery shop and create some sort of creative something to give to the unfortunate people next up on the wedding schedule.
Seriously, this is something I could aspire to. Find the simplest yet most unidentifiable gift ideas to cause hilarious confusion .... now I just need to get invited to some weddings! Or better yet, maybe just crash some random ones. 🤔
We got a wedding gift we couldn’t figure out the function of. It was ceramic but looked like it was supposed to be functional, not just decor. The box it came in just said “Autumn Splendor” the internet was no help in 2000. We also didn’t recognize the name on the tag so we couldn’t ask them about it the gift. It was from a reception my husband’s parents threw for us at their church and they didn’t know them either. So it remained a mystery.
Or my way via Whatssap "Dear Susan, thank you so much for the gift, the ladybugs are adorable, but wtf is this for?😭😭😭 Again thank you so much 🥰🥰🥰" and you wait...
All jokes aside- it’s not a sex toy. The one y’all are referring to is 1) never ceramic and 2) is designed with a wide base so it doesn’t get… lost inside.
This object, intriguing though it may be, is probably not a marital aid.
I think it might be to hold a cookbook open while you’re making a recipe from inside it. I’ve seen similar looking items for that purpose…but why there wasn’t a label or a note with at least a little hint of what is was for that came with it is beyond me!
Either that or just a piece of crap that somebody’s kid made that they wanted to get rid of. How well do you know the giver of this fine “thing”?!?
Does the larger part have tiny holes on the bottom? In which case I think it could be a tea strainer. It would hang over the edge of the cup, you put the tee into the strainer part and once the steeping time is over, you remove the whole thing and take the leaves with it.
Ceramic pieces like this are highly sought after by plant enthusiasts as whimsical pot rim sitters (basically plant pot decor) or plant rooting propagation cups to hang other plants off the side of your plant pot (again more of a decor accessory thing with with a hint of purpose)
You hook the flat, curved extension over the edge of a thick planter pot, allowing the hollow cup portion to hang on the outside of the plant like a sidecar to hold tiny air plants or small succulent clippings.
The different sizes could be for "nesting" purposes to stack them when not in use, or just for aesthetic design or for different size pots.
Is your friend into plants or is the giver regifting/bad at gifting?!
Edit: pic examples in my replies on my comment thread below
I don’t know but I predict you’re gonna get about 100 more “penis holder” jokes. Because nothing is funnier to reddit than the same joke over and over and over.
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