Monday 1 August 2016

Turn the paper upside-down for the answer


I came upon this image when researching the boot-pipe which has garnered me a record-breaking number of comments. I think it depicts the aftermath of an opium-fuelled party for debauched young people.

It just goes to show that - inexplicably - there are two things which get you lot going - dog-shit and drug-taking.

Even more inexplicably, I also found this image nestling incongruously amongst a load of drug paraphanalia:


It reminds me of a romanticised picture of the young H.I. embarking on her life-long career as a painter, although I cannot help thinking that there is an old man in a shabby raincoat just out of shot.

Maybe it is just that nobody can resist the challenge of identifying objects of mystery. I know I can't. There is a sort of excrutiating pleasure to be had from the experience, and once the puzzle has been solved we sink into an almost post-coital state of lethargy, then begin listlessly keeping a half-closed eye out for the next one - a bit like writing blog posts.

There is a woman who keeps a stall in our Flea Market, and she seems to make a speciality of such objects, though I have resisted buying any of them because I just know that the thing will be a proper let-down when its purpose has been identified.

That thing, for instance, which looks like an incense shaker, but could not be? The other thing which looks like a combination of a bit of jewelry and a watch fob?

I once found a glass sphere about four inches in diameter, and it was full of feathers. I wish I had bought it, because I later discovered that it was a very rare (for obvious reasons) and consequentially very valuable Victorian 'clay pigeon'. It was thrown into the air, and when hit with a shotgun  it burst, producing a cloud of satifying feathers in the air.

Do you remember when many magazines and periodicals had a section where they photographed an everyday object from a strange angle, then asked you what it was? I wish they still did that.

17 comments:

  1. Or they shwed photgraphs of only a part of a thing - magnified mostly, and one had to guess.

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    1. I'm glad I bought now an (rosé-gold) MacBook - in this comment I still used my Vaio - and the result: the lot of typos.

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    2. Yes, that's true.

      Rosé gold? Sounds fancy!

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  2. I seem to have missed out on that kind of magazine. Oh the angst!

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    1. Maybe I will take some of those 'guess what?' photos. Yes, I will.

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  3. We used to have Reveille and Titbits, one of these had a guess the object or even probably both. I always felt well and truly tricked by them and hated it whilst still not being able to resist having a long look, and several times returning to the picture.

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    1. Those two mags were considered too saucy in our house. Health and Effiency was found in hedgerows.

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    2. They formed an important part of my education along with the News of the World and the Sunday Pictorial. My brother had all the Health and Efficiency under his mattress.

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    3. I blame H & E in the same way that Ruskin blamed Greek sculpture for not knowing what women's bits looked like until it was too late. Big willies and beef curtains are the most offensive in classical sculpture.

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    4. You mean normal isnt Barbie Doll smooth and perfectly formed? I must stop worrying and cancel the operation.

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    5. Yes, and cut all those golden tresses off as well.

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  4. I look forward to some more of your visual puzzlers.

    It's fun to see how our eyes can be fooled.

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    1. I will sit on the photo-copier and post up the results for you to guess at.

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  5. Your blog is always just a bit different, refreshing.
    Merle..........

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    1. I am glad you find it so, Merle. In the main, it is to try and entertain me, but if it entertains others, that's good.

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  6. " ... nobody can resist the challenge of identifying objects of mystery", you say.

    I can. Easily. Maybe I am not particularly competitive or, and you may like it, I just admire an object of the aesthetically pleasing without the need to know anything about it.

    Still, your sleuthing made fascinating and, more importantly, amusing reading.

    And those items you describe above, again I'd have not been cautious in acquiring them (funds permitting). You know the one I love - and I had no idea - is the glass sphere/clay pigeon one. That is so damn clever in terms of giving people an illusion of the real thing, even if the length some people go to to indulge/be indulged (feathers) is pretty breathtaking.

    U

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