# Real life mysteries you never found the answer to **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128 "2003-06-16T02:20:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Aguecheek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Aguecheek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aguecheek)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/41 "2003-06-19T17:55:27Z")
When I was a kid (living in Germany), my parents rented a villa on a beach in the south of France for two weeks. For the first week I was there, I hung out with a British kid whose name, unfortunately, eludes me for the moment. For some reason or another, sometime after the first week, he decided I had done something horrible and awful and refused to play with me for the rest of the time we were there. I had no idea why he even refused to talk to me, or give me his reasons. I was really hurt that I was no longer considered fit to associate with him. What’s even worse is that his sister told my sister why, but swore her to secrecy, a vow my sister honoured. Twenty years later, I’m sure she’d spill, but she’s completely forgotten about the entire incident. Just tell me what I did, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/42 "2003-06-19T18:41:24Z")
Back when I was in high school, I carried around a very large book bag, partially because I was protesting some idiotic school locker policies and partially because the habit made excellent cover for when I was smuggling something in or out of the school. The bag remained within my sight, and generally within my reach, all day. One afternoon I was digging through the bag for something-or-other…and I found a rubber chicken. It was not in the bag that morning. Neither I nor anyone I knew owned a rubber chicken. There was no opportunity for anyone to slyly slip the flexible fowl into the bag. Yet there it was, quietly defying logic with a smirk on its beak. I never found out where it came from. I still have it somewhere, unless the void from which it sprang has reclaimed it. ---
**Author:** ![FallFast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba9def/32.png) [@FallFast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallFast)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/43 "2003-06-19T18:54:00Z")
I have two mysteries: 1. In elementary school in the 3 and 4th grades, this is around 1971 – 72, I had a huge crush on a classmate. The crush was from afar. I never told anybody of this crush. She always liked the tall cute blond guys in the class. Me short, fugly, and dark hair never had a chance. She moved to Florida after the 4th grade. I always wanted to know what happened to her. Zoe Hill hope you have a great life. Plus, all those people that come into our lives make an impression for awhile and then move on, what happens to them. I’d love just to have some type of directory that says this is what happened to John Doe, and this happened to Jane Smith. 2. In the last 12 years my wife and I have moved across the country several times. Did I say I have moving. Each time you move you end up going through all your stuff, throwing lots away, packing up other stuff and then unpacking it all at the other end. This last move while unpacking my wife came upon an old toy stuffed animal monkey. Neither of us has ever seen it before. It was in one of our boxes that we taped up. Were did this monkey come from? Strange. We have since named it Gerdy (sp). ---
**Author:** ![FallFast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba9def/32.png) [@FallFast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallFast)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/44 "2003-06-19T18:56:42Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by FallFast \* > \*\* > Did I say I have moving_\* should be HATE not have, dumb dumb dumb:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/45 "2003-06-19T19:22:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > \*\*[Stop Casting Porosity](http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/davea/porosity.html) > > That doesn’t explain it at all. It’s just where the phrase comes from. \*\* Well, feh. I thought I’d try to solve this the old fashioned way and make a phone call. I looked up the name of the company, “Accurate Electrical Co., Inc.” and there are no listings for a company by that name anywhere in California, let alone San Leandro (which is what it says on the sign) or Hayward (which is the city the person on the linked page said they were driving through) or any other nearby city, such as Oakland. Googling the name gave me this listing: > [@](#): > > Accurate Electrical Co., Inc. > 1050 Bridgeport Ave > Milford, CT 06460 > > Phone: 203-874-1588 > Fax: 203-874-1543 Sadly, both of those numbers are no longer in service. ☹ Every other Google link was either another curious inquiry, someone using it as their sig in a post or pages and pages of porn links. Oh well. This is one of those that’ll probably just forever remain a mystery! ---
**Author:** ![Capcha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Capcha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capcha)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/46 "2003-06-19T19:24:55Z")
**Blanace** i had to clean my screen…found it hilarious 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dragonstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@Dragonstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonstar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/47 "2003-06-19T19:24:57Z")
I’d like to know where my other winter boot is. I packed two boots three moves ago, unpacked one and thought maybe the mate would reappear in one of the last two moves…no such luck! Yes, I did buy new boots since we had a real winter. I also lost my clothing steamer. I had it at the destination in which the boot failed to materialize, but never saw it again. I think there’s a black hole somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/48 "2003-06-20T02:20:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jovan \* > \*\*I believe [this site](http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/clfpq.html) gives a fairly easy to understand, comprehensive introduction of Clifford Algebras for the layman. > > \*\* Yeah, but the question still remains: what is it about Clifford Algebra that would make **Sublight** ’s roommate turn ghastly and flee from him as if he had said “purple box”? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/49 "2003-06-20T02:40:16Z")
Well, in all fairness, he reacted the same way when I showed him my coffee mug, so maybe I just caught him in a weird mood. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/50 "2003-06-20T02:59:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\*Well, in all fairness, he reacted the same way when I showed him my coffee mug, so maybe I just caught him in a weird mood. \*\* Dude, how often do you clean that coffee mug? ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/51 "2003-06-20T03:06:20Z")
When I was about 8 years old I found a small copper coin in our back yard. It was about the size of a penny, and had Arabic writing on it. At the time, I believed it was from Turkey, though I could have been wrong. My dad couldn’t imagine where it had come from–I was the only one in the family who collected coins, and although he travelled overseas on business, he’d never gone to the Middle East or anywhere near. I was quite proud of that coin, and even took it to school for Show and Tell. I kept it on a shelf in the kitchen (perhaps because I was afraid of losing it in my room?) and looked at it almost every day. But one day, about two months after I found it, it was gone. No one in my family knew where it went. Don’t know how it appeared, don’t know how it disappeared. It’s a mystery, all right. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/52 "2003-11-23T04:15:22Z")
Regarding “Stop Casting Porosity!”, **GIGObuster** has [opened a separate thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=224908) to deal with it. Since **Shayna** did not find a working phone, it may be possible that the sign on 880 has simply not yet been torn down from some earlier business, now defunct. (Or the sign may be attached to a business _behind_ the electrical outfit in the foreground.) ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/53 "2003-11-23T05:15:10Z")
I had a book that I had loved and stupid trusting me lent it to someone I barely knew. Needless to say I never saw it again and that person moved away that summer. 8 years later I was walking thru a used book store and saw a copy of it and thought “hey I used to like this book I should buy it” I bought it noticing it had the same bend in the corner that my book did. Later when I opened it had on the title page an X made with a marker. One line purple one line red. EXACTLY like my book did. Was this just a HUGE coincidence or is this my lost book turned up in a used bookstore in the next city over. I’ll never know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/54 "2003-11-23T05:31:00Z")
I had a book that I had loved and stupid trusting me lent it to someone I barely knew. Needless to say I never saw it again and that person moved away that summer. 8 years later I was walking thru a used book store and saw a copy of it and thought “hey I used to like this book I should buy it” I bought it noticing it had the same bend in the corner that my book did. Later when I opened it had on the title page an X made with a marker. One line purple one line red. EXACTLY like my book did. Was this just a HUGE coincidence or is this my lost book turned up in a used bookstore in the next city over. I’ll never know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/55 "2003-11-23T05:39:05Z")
I had a book that I had loved and stupid trusting me lent it to someone I barely knew. Needless to say I never saw it again and that person moved away that summer. 8 years later I was walking thru a used book store and saw a copy of it and thought “hey I used to like this book I should buy it” I bought it noticing it had the same bend in the corner that my book did. Later when I opened it had on the title page an X made with a marker. One line purple one line red. EXACTLY like my book did. Was this just a HUGE coincidence or is this my lost book turned up in a used bookstore in the next city over. I’ll never know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/56 "2003-11-23T05:43:14Z")
then there’s the mystery of hitting submit once and getting three posts. Do not try to understand the mind of the hamsters they move in mysterious ways. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/57 "2003-11-23T06:17:24Z")
It is the weirdest thing, that I keep running into this same book everywhere I go: people’s houses, book stores, antique stores, etc. The weird thing is that it’s not even that _popular of a book!_ The book? _The Prophet_ by Kalil Gibrahn. And it’s freaky. The eyes on the cover glare through my soul. Tripler And I’ve never even _read_ the damn thing. I just keep seeing it. . . ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/58 "2003-11-23T06:24:25Z")
**Tripler** -The Prophet was always a very popular gift kinda book when I worked in a bookstore. I never knew why, but we sold quite a few copies of them. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128/59 "2003-11-23T06:29:21Z")
**GMRyujin** , it’s really freaking me out. . . Who bought them? Guys? Gals? What the hell?!? I’m serious! This is freaking me out more than when I found out that Dire Straits was from England! Tripler Not that I have anything against the English [sub]or anyone named Knopfler[/sub]. . . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-mysteries-you-never-found-the-answer-to/182128.md?page=2)