# Creepy (or downright disturbing) souvenirs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 12, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782 "2005-11-12T23:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/41 "2005-11-14T04:13:00Z")
A friend of mine has a little jar that he took outside during hurricane Wilma and filled with “wind.” Now he says he has a piece of a hurricane on his shelf. The son of another guy I know brought home a weekly scholastic magazine in which the cover story was about the crew and mission of the space shuttle_Columbia_. The thing is, the magazine was distributed just _after_ the destruction of the shuttle. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/42 "2005-11-14T04:37:42Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > When I was a kid, my maternal grandparents went to South America and bought me a wooden letter opener that had the head of a baby caiman as the grip. > > One of my great-uncles fought in New Guinea during World War II and brought back a Japanese flag that he claimed he took from a soldier who lay dead on the battlefield. The flag was marked with some Japanese writing which (as far as I know) has never been translated, despite occasional expressions of determination to “find someone who reads Japanese and can tell us if these are names of the dead man’s buddies, inspirational slogans, or whatever”. Grab a picture of it. We, the Millions, shall undertake a translation. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/43 "2005-11-14T13:34:07Z")
Does second hand count? My Father gave a ride one evening to an elderly woman. She insisted he come in for coffee. On the mantle was her dead husband’s eye floating in a jar. Removed for some cancerous reason while he was alive, Dad said it’s dead gaze would follow you about the room. He left very, very quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/44 "2005-11-14T13:46:52Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Does second hand count? > My Father gave a ride one evening to an elderly woman. She insisted he come in for coffee. > On the mantle was her dead husband’s eye floating in a jar. Removed for some cancerous reason while he was alive, Dad said it’s dead gaze would follow you about the room. He left very, very quickly. OK, I think we have a winner, here! \ ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/45 "2005-11-14T13:48:01Z")
I’ve got all my son’s baby teeth in a little plastic case. But I don’t think it’s all that uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/46 "2005-11-14T14:59:48Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I don’t know if anyone else would find this creepy, and it may not actually be a souviner/ I found an animal [claw](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/picunurse/claw2.jpg) in a drawer. I don’t know where it came from. The claw is a bit over an inch long. There remains about 1/2 inch of leathery tissue with a few hairs, and its mounted on a piece of wire to make it wearable. > Hubby swears he’s never seen it before. He’s a very gentle type. He doesn’t hunt. > No one else lives here. > Visitors wouldn’t have access to that particular desk 😕 My dad used to have a couple lion’s claws. He joined the Peace Corps after college and lived in Burkina Faso for four years. My brother and I always used to make him tell us about the time he went on a “lion hunt” (actually a “lion-in-a-leg-trap kill”). Although he didn’t contribute to the kill, he was allowed to take two of the claws as souvenirs. He had the non-sharp ends capped with gold and strung them on gold chains as necklaces. He gave one to his girlfriend, and kept the other for a long time but eventually gave it to his mom. I remember seeing it as a kid; it was huge and very sharp and scary. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/47 "2005-11-14T20:12:11Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Away in a casket > No crib for a bed > The little Lord Jesus > Looks awfully dead > > The cattle are lowing > The Lord has turned blue > “Pray for resurrection” > The cows softly moo. The stable is frantic Oh Christ, he won’t wake So Mary And Joseph Give Him a rough shake His head’s lolling sideways Jesus, he’s cyan. Pine box death has done for The Saviour of man. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/48 "2005-11-14T21:03:56Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > If you tilted this picture, it showed Jesus’s eyes opening and closing. Just the audiovisual aid for Good Friday services. Open eyes: “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Tilt, close eyes: “Uhhh…!” I had one that was Jesus or Mary depending on how you tilted it. Then it broke in half, so now I have the top half of Jesus or Mary, depending on how you tilt it, which is even funnier. I have also seen a wine carafe made out of a cow’s hoof and lower leg. It had a nail driven into the heel part so it would stand upright. I didn’t buy it, but I should have, if only because mere words cannot impart exactly how grotesque it was and I would love to be able to show a picture. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/49 "2005-11-14T21:27:50Z")
My mom has the dessicated remainder of my circumsized foreskin in a box in the garage. > [@Sternvogel](#): > > One of my great-uncles fought in New Guinea during World War II and brought back a Japanese flag that he claimed he took from a soldier who lay dead on the battlefield. I received from my grandfather an officer’s saber he says he picked up as a trophy while he was participating in the postwar occupation of Japan. I asked if he got it off a dead guy or what; he didn’t answer me. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/50 "2005-11-14T21:35:23Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > When I was in Rome, I wish I’d bought this godawful piece of kitsch I saw in a tourist shop. A full-color close-up photo of (an actor portraying) Jesus hanging on the cross. It was covered with one of those gratings that shows a different picture if you tilt it at a different angle. If you tilted this picture, it showed Jesus’s eyes opening and closing. Just the audiovisual aid for Good Friday services. Open eyes: “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Tilt, close eyes: “Uhhh…!” I have a snow-globe featuring a depiction of the Crucifixion that I got at Palisades Amusement Park in the 1960s. Now, a Nativity snow-globe I can understand, but the swirling snowflakes impart a bit too much jolliness to the Crucifixion scene for most people’s taste. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/51 "2005-11-14T21:51:48Z")
My dad bought me a little skull made out of Pompeii lava rock. That’s not nearly as fun as some of this other stuff. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/52 "2005-11-15T01:50:52Z")
I carry around a little pocket tape measure - a business souvenir embossed with the logo of an Artificial Limb Company. Perfect for measuring severed digits and what-have-you. I have no idea where I got it from. The company, obviously. But how it ended up in my pocket… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/53 "2005-11-15T02:01:14Z")
> [@Backwater Under\_Duck](#): > > Perfect for measuring severed digits and what-have-you. . English or Metric? How many divisions, mm, 1/64 of an inch? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/54 "2005-11-15T02:06:00Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > an officer’s saber . A sabre as in Western cavalry weapon, or a tradiotional Japanese katana? ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/55 "2005-11-15T02:13:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > English or Metric? How many divisions, mm, 1/64 of an inch? > 🙂 Cubits 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/56 "2005-11-15T02:45:36Z")
> [@Backwater Under\_Duck](#): > > Cubits 😉 Ow! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/57 "2005-11-15T03:39:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > A sabre as in Western cavalry weapon, or a tradiotional Japanese katana? If it was the former, no WONDER he didn’t want to say where he got it… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/58 "2005-11-15T04:44:08Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > If it was the former, no WONDER he didn’t want to say where he got it… Perhaps he won it from an elderly White Russian in a poker game. ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/59 "2005-11-15T08:13:06Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I don’t know if anyone else would find this creepy, and it may not actually be a souviner/ I found an animal [claw](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/picunurse/claw2.jpg) in a drawer. I don’t know where it came from. The claw is a bit over an inch long. There remains about 1/2 inch of leathery tissue with a few hairs, and its mounted on a piece of wire to make it wearable. > Hubby swears he’s never seen it before. He’s a very gentle type. He doesn’t hunt. > No one else lives here. > Visitors wouldn’t have access to that particular desk 😕 Ever see the Blair Witch? I’d steer clear of the basement for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782/60 "2005-11-15T13:12:18Z")
A FOAF showed me this totally awesome lighter she bought in Rome for herself, a nonsmoker. It is of a woman ( presumably Hindu) sitting/squatting and when you light the lighter, flames shoot out her vagina and her breasts glow. I coveted that thing like nothing else before in my life. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-or-downright-disturbing-souvenirs/330782.md?page=4)