# What's the most interesting object you own? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 21, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151 "2023-02-21T18:02:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/21 "2023-02-21T22:36:21Z")
Gold dust that I panned myself out of a river in the Colorado mountains. It’s just a tiny bit. But I panned it. And it is gold dust. I have it in a test tube. I used a small wet paint brush to pull the pieces of it out of the pan. The cohesion worked. It’s pretty cool really. The test tube is full of water. It’s amazing how fast the gold will fall through the water. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/22 "2023-02-21T22:57:59Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Meet Naña. I got her in New Orleans from a voodoo shop, I got a little bottle of Go Away Drops, perhaps from that same shop. Unfortunately, I used them up rather quickly. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/23 "2023-02-22T00:54:31Z")
The original land grant for my family’s farm in Illinois. Granted in March 1857 by President James K. Polk. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/24 "2023-02-22T01:02:44Z")
The Yzerman story made me so happy. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/25 "2023-02-22T01:11:51Z")
A first class relic of a distant relative Priest who was part of the anti-Soviet resistance, got made a Martyr, now a “Blessed”. Not too many people can turn a Vampire with a relic from a cousin. 😱 One of the original copies of Barnabas’s wolf cane, silver plated over Alpaca metal I think. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/26 "2023-02-22T01:23:18Z")
I have a few 2000-year-old Chinese coins, which aren’t actually that rare. I also have a coin with the image of the Roman emperor Commodus (the villain in _Gladiator_). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/27 "2023-02-22T01:27:23Z")
My Press pass from the first launch of the Space Shuttle. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/28 "2023-02-22T01:33:34Z")
I was there for the first launch as well! I was ten, and more interested in the turtles down by the riverbank. Got a shock when I joined a bunch of men down there to see what they were looking at, turned out most of them were taking a whiz. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/29 "2023-02-22T01:47:11Z")
I still have my Entry Pass, Parking Pass and Flightline pass for the landing of STS-31 at Edwards. That’s where I met Penn Jillette. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/30 "2023-02-22T01:54:05Z")
I’ve got a 1939 letter with envelope from Margaret Mitchell to a fan who lived in an apartment building I later lived in, in which she explains why she never gave autographs. She signed the letter. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/31 "2023-02-22T03:09:51Z")
Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby not only wrote _Duck Soup_ but many of the famous songs that Groucho sang. They were close pals of the Marxes. I have a copy of the _Kalmar-Ruby Songbook_ with a bookplate “From the Library of Harpo and Susan Marx.” Imagine me having something associated with Harpo. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/32 "2023-02-22T03:25:42Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > Goalies don’t eat with the team. Off topic, but _what_? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/33 "2023-02-22T03:39:39Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > > [@kayaker](#): > > > > Meet Naña. I got her in New Orleans from a voodoo shop, > > I got a little bottle of Go Away Drops, perhaps from that same shop. Unfortunately, I used them up rather quickly. Say what you will about voodoo, but everything I’ve ever purchased has worked as intended. Anyone batting a thousand with god? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/34 "2023-02-22T03:45:11Z")
My object is actually a pair: I have an actual box of [Darkie toothpaste and a later “Darlie” version.](https://www.goldthread2.com/identity/origins-colgate-darlie-black-person-toothpaste-explained/article/3089860) I bought the original sometime in the 1980s while traveling in Asia - because it was so unbelievably racist, I knew that if I didn’t buy it so I could show it to people, they might not believe me. Later when it became “Darlie” with a whiter character, I got that too, just to document. I feel as though it’s not really appropriate for me as a White person to show these items on my knickknack shelf. (I used to.) One of these days I will research Black-operated museums that specialize in racist memorabilia and offer to send them both boxes (complete with original toothpaste tubes inside), as long as they assure me those items would be worthwhile additions to their collections. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/35 "2023-02-22T03:47:03Z")
My most interesting object is a woven cord that has a cluster of feathers tied on one end. Many years ago I was exploring a hill in New Mexico that had lots of pictograms on the rocks. As I neared the top, I heard drums and chanting, and could see in the distance an elderly Native American woman beating the drum. A young woman in full regalia was standing silently. After a bit, they walked back down the hill to the parking lot, and I went on up…where I found the two sticks that the woman had used to beat the drum. They were obviously old and were decorated. Realizing that they had been left behind, I stood up and waved my arms, shouting down to the two ladies who were at their car. I held the sticks up, and hurried down to the car. When I arrived there, the old woman thanked me and explained that she was the senior woman who acted as a ritual leader (I don’t know the exact term she used for her position), and that the drum was many generations old. When I got ready to leave, she said wait, and looked into my eyes, and handed me the feathers and spoke in her native tongue - and then told me that they were a blessing and I should always keep them…and I have. The unusual thing was that when she was doing this, I felt very strange…prickly and with my hair on my arms and neck standing up. I haven’t decided after all these years what that all means, but I still have the feathers. I have only told a few people over the years, but as this is an anonymous board, now lots of folks have heard my tale. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/36 "2023-02-22T03:58:22Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > They were awarded by the Soviets to people who helped clean up after the nuclear disaster. Did you test it for radiation? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/37 "2023-02-22T04:30:42Z")
I have one, to. We went on vacation in part to celebrate the end of the wall, and when we were there, a budding East German entrepreneur rented a hammer and chisel to us for an hour, and we helped remove the wall. I also have a softball signed by both a nobel prize winner and a field’s medalist (Frank Wilczec and Enrico Bombieri) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/38 "2023-02-22T05:58:02Z")
A Liberty propeller/turbine blade (pre-Hartzell) that was probably used to spin a generator on a WW-1 bomber. The company had to change it’s name because Liberty was the trademarked name of an engine. ---
**Author:** ![Nyvaak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Nyvaak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nyvaak)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/39 "2023-02-22T06:28:39Z")
A small piece of pumice I picked up near the base of Mt. St. Helens, where the ground was littered with many such. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151/40 "2023-02-22T07:57:14Z")
Acknowledging that “interesting” is subjective, I own a plastic tooth. It was from the set of The Hogfather, and handed to me by Terry Pratchett. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-interesting-object-you-own/980151.md?page=3)