# How do you find something that is lost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 27, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694 "2009-12-27T10:10:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/41 "2009-12-29T08:12:33Z")
Sheesh, there’s even a [manual](http://www.professorsolomon.com/) for it people! ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/42 "2009-12-29T08:21:56Z")
I will leave it at this, but think if there was anyone that might have reason to be interested in the material in the journal with direct or indirect access to your room while you were gone for four months. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/43 "2009-12-29T16:39:41Z")
> [@luv2draw](#): > > I’ve posted this before, but here goes again: > > You have to ask the purple men. > > They were on a Twilight Zone episode. Not the old, original Twilight Zone with Rod Serling but the newer one that was on several years ago that was in color. > > A couple awake to hear people in their house and go downstairs to find men dressed in purple rearranging things. Their supervisor is embarrassed and upset that they are seen by the couple but the supervisor explains. It seems that in the time between minutes of the day, the scene has to be re-set by the purple men. They go outside and he shows them as an example–2 cars approach each other on the street and come close then stop. The purple men hit the front of both cars with hammers, etc. This is “between minutes”. In the next minute, both cars are damaged; they just had an accident… They were blue actually, great episode. Here is a link to it on YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0LYWpj66Q](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0LYWpj66Q) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/44 "2009-12-29T16:50:33Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > They were blue actually, great episode. Here is a link to it on YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0LYWpj66Q](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0LYWpj66Q) Yup! I remember that episode when it first aired. I didn’t remember them as purple, but blue. Didn’t they also leave behind a blue wrench on a pay phone once they re-entered the minute? ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/45 "2009-12-29T20:45:11Z")
I lost my car keys last year. Now, mind you, I had finally badgered my partner (who constantly stashed the keys in a different place, like her pants pocket or dresser or wherever, sending us hunting, like, _every_ friggin’ day for the damn keys) into putting the keys in one place. On the telephone stand in the hall. I was feeling very proud of the fact that I had accomplished that little feat. So, this particular day, I go for the keys that I (me, myself – this is an important detail) had put on the stand, and… no keys!!! Crap. I asked my partner if she knew where they were. She hadn’t touched them. Then of course she proceeded to needle me about putting the keys in once place. Ha, ha! Rivulus didn’t put the keys where they belong. Snicker, snicker. So… feeling mildly guilty, but rather more indignant – because I _remembered_ putting the keys where they belong dammit – I hunted everywhere I could possibly imagine I might have put the keys. I reviewed in my mind when I last had them, and what I did when I came in the house. I even looked in places I couldn’t possibly imagine putting them. I started to seriously freak after a while, because I could distinctly remember putting the keys on the stand, yet clearly they were not there… and was I getting Alzheimer’s or something??? (Back story: I really have a lousy memory, so this is a real fear of mine, for it to get worse.) Anyhow, in desperation, I say “maybe the baby took them.” Little guy was about 1 year old at the time. “No way!” says my partner, “you can’t blame the baby! Fess up, you didn’t put the keys back where they belong.” Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! But I _did_, I swear I did!!! Anyway, to make a long story longer… my partner actually found the keys. In the trash can in the bathroom. Turns out, the baby _did_ take them. And tossed them in the trash, like he liked to do with pretty much everything. Now when something goes wrong, I say “Can I blame the baby now?” ---
**Author:** ![Marienee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Marienee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marienee)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/46 "2009-12-29T21:03:19Z")
I used to ask St. Anthony, patron saint of finding lost things. Lost souls, lost car keys, whatever. For those of us not on a first name basis with the big guy, the rhyme goes: Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, please come around Something is lost and cannot be found Say this three times with eyes closed or in a room other than where you think the lost item might be. Then go back in/open your eyes. I expect it works the same way asking the purple guys does, that is, it couses the invisible black hole in your house to regurgitate the item in question. Franciscans, purple guys, who’s counting? My great aunt used to ask her statue of Saint Anthony and then bury it in the back yard until the lost item was found again. Then she would dig him up, thank him, and give him a nice bath and a coat of paint as necessary. Gotta keep those patron saints on their toes. Why yes, it was a colorful childhood, why do you ask? Sometimes I call my beautiful sister number one, who for whatever reason usually knows where I have put things even though she has never actually been in my house and is separated from it by a large ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/47 "2009-12-30T01:54:51Z")
Purple People? With peter thieves around, they need to watch out. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7C_MM9ug2D4/hqdefault.jpg "purple people eater song!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C_MM9ug2D4) Song by Sheb Wooley was number on on the pop hits in 1958! ---
**Author:** ![I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4491bb/32.png) [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Have_Hippos_In_My_Garden)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/48 "2009-12-30T20:01:19Z")
Well here is the latest journal update! I took a mixture of your advice and asked my Dad to help me look. He searched all over while I sat and watched (and laughed as he knocked everything over in the process, bless him) and we didn’t find it. I looked in boxes and strange places that I had previously thought ‘‘Noway would it be there’’. And it wasn’t. I emptied clothes boxes and drawers, and between us we pulled out drawers and looked under and behind them. Again, nothing. So, I am still convinced I accidently took it to the tip ☹ ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694/49 "2009-12-31T04:54:23Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > They were blue actually, great episode. Here is a link to it on YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0LYWpj66Q](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0LYWpj66Q) Wow, thanks for the correction… I remembered them as purple. Don’t know why… You know what? Purple works for me when I call on them to find something so I guess I’d better stick with it, huh? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-find-something-that-is-lost/522694.md?page=2)