# What's the strangest/most unique thing you own? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837 "2006-09-23T10:36:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/41 "2006-09-24T03:14:24Z")
a four foot translucent walking staff, tapping the butt on the ground cause numerous LEDs inside to blink. Currently in need of repair. A black and gold walking staff made from an old table leg. A Batman head-and shoulders pillow made from an old t-shirt. ---
**Author:** ![MrFantsyPants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MrFantsyPants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFantsyPants)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/42 "2006-09-24T03:19:03Z")
hmmm, some neat stuff… A Lulua Cheftain statue, circa 1879 from Zaire. A human skeleton (real) with a coyote skull (I cut it off and boiled it myself) An original Pong game. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/43 "2006-09-24T03:53:23Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode] A Virtual Boy [/QUOTE] I got one of those too, along with some other oddball gaming systems. Sega Nomad or Atari Jaguar (with the CD drive, no less) anyone? But for the strangest thing I have, it’s a tossup between one of several things: - A used NASCAR stock car tire, which I got after the 1998 Pepsi 400 and turned into a coffee table. According to the markings written on it with a yellow grease pencil, it apparently was a right-rear tire belonging to car #32. - A gas mask from World War II. - A 105mm artillery shell. It’s an inert practice projectile, made of brass, and weighs about 30 lbs. - Some sort of control lever from a Soviet Tu-16 bomber. It’s bright red and apparently had something to do with the fuel sysem in an emergency. - A KC-135 flight computer, dated June 1959. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/44 "2006-09-24T04:27:12Z")
> [@](#): > > **Walloon** : The autographed typescript of a poem Ray Bradbury wrote for me. Oh, wow. Bradbury wrote my favorite poem. It ends with the words _I remember you._ I’ve never read poetry that I identified with more. I have among other things: \*\*a handwritten letter by Colette a note to me on Katharine Hepburn’s personal stationery a piece of one of Queen Victoria’s tablecloths a quilt that was pieced together from my grandfather’s tobacco sacks a needlepoint of my childhood home (73,000 stitches) Zana Needham’s secret chocolate pie recipe (to be passed on to one person at my death) a 20th Century Fox copy of the last scene of the last M_A_S\*H episode shot on the lot, autographed by Alan Alda \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/45 "2006-09-24T04:39:21Z")
Not too unique since there are quite a few around the world but nobody I currently know has one: a piece of the Berlin Wall. Chiseled it out myself. ---
**Author:** ![mamakat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@mamakat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamakat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/46 "2006-09-24T04:47:15Z")
I have a human skull my great aunt dug up when her house was being built. It creeps me out just a bit, but I don’t know what to do with it! I had the leg bone and part of the pelvis, too, but they mystriously dissappeared…oooooh! ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/47 "2006-09-24T04:51:49Z")
A resin replica of the Gundestrup caldron. A [sgian dubh](http://hiwaay.net/~dfronfld/sgiandubh.jpg) made with three different kind of meteorite. Several chunks of the Gibeon Meteorite (that were not made into a knife) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/48 "2006-09-24T04:53:13Z")
[QUOTE=mamakat] I have a human skull my great aunt dug up when her house was being built. It creeps me out just a bit, but I don’t know what to do with it! [/QUOTE] Take it along to the next funeral you go to. Whilst paying your respects to the deceased, surreptitiously sneak the skull into the coffin. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/49 "2006-09-24T05:38:42Z")
Somewhere I’ve got a chunk of salt from Sodom. I’m probably the only girl on the block with a copy of \*Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone \* in Vietnamese. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/50 "2006-09-24T06:04:35Z")
I’ve got a little carved wooden statue of a boy sitting on either a lion or a dog. It looks Chinese. It appears it may have been covered in gold at one time. I think it was scraped off, but there are still little slivers of it in the creases. It also appears he was holding something in one hand, a scepter or something, that has been removed. If it really is a piece of antique Chinese art, then it’s probably the most unique thing I own (though it’s been so badly abused, I doubt it’s very valuable now). ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/51 "2006-09-24T08:00:08Z")
I have the key to a room on the fourth floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad. I was staying at the hotel in April, 2004 when the Shiite hit the fan and I had to drive to Turkey and walk out of the country. When I got to the states, I realized I still had the key (and they had my stuff). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/52 "2006-09-24T09:22:13Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Not too unique since there are quite a few around the world but nobody I currently know has one: a piece of the Berlin Wall. Chiseled it out myself. [/QUOTE] You don’t know me yet but … ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/53 "2006-09-24T10:28:18Z")
I have an antique cream pitcher shaped like a duck billed platypus. My mother assured me it would be “worth a lot of money someday.” I also have several WWII era quartz crystal units. ---
**Author:** ![blackhobyah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blackhobyah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackhobyah)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/54 "2006-09-24T10:30:23Z")
I have two mammoth hairs. A friend of my family’s was on an expedition to Siberia when they dug a frozen mammoth out of the ice. He brought some of the hairs back for me and my sister. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/55 "2006-09-24T10:32:52Z")
[QUOTE=blackhobyah] I have two mammoth hairs. A friend of my family’s was on an expedition to Siberia when they dug a frozen mammoth out of the ice. He brought some of the hairs back for me and my sister. [/QUOTE] That’s cool. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/56 "2006-09-24T10:48:19Z")
[QUOTE=Bike Rider] :eek: Good Og, I honestly never noticed that before, although that would explain the spring in his step. I think I’ll only light the “don’t walk” signal from now on… [/QUOTE] But that is so obviously his arm! ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/57 "2006-09-24T11:15:36Z")
Several weird gizmo’s from the [London Science Museum shop.](http://www.sciencemuseumstore.com/mall/departmentpage.cfm/ScienceMuseumStore) Like sand that feels like wet sand under water, but is dry the very second it is out of the water. Or a black, self inflating personal air balloon. An ivory Japanese tiny [netsuke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke)-statue. It depicts, in astonishing miniature detail, a monk with his hands tied behind his back, smiling serenely at the rats he shares his bread with. A book _about_ my grandfather. He was a famous Dutch architect. A [postcard of a French wedding,](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k53/Maastricht_01/nocemorvandelle.jpg), ca 1880. It is in Black and white, but colored, as was the custom in those days. I bought it in 1985, so way before the days of Photoshop. Top row, second from the left is a woman who is the spitting image of Mick Jagger. Below her is a guy who _uncannily_ resembles John Cleese. A third girl in the picture looks like the Mona Lisa would if she had lived in the South of France in 1880. The picture is not a fake; it’s just that the human face has only so much variety and some faces have to be used several times over history. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/58 "2006-09-24T11:45:10Z")
A cannon ball. ---
**Author:** ![Webner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@Webner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Webner)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/59 "2006-09-24T13:40:22Z")
I own a few Roman coins. I used to have a wooden keychain I bought at a festival that looked to me like a peapod but to others like a vagina. I threw it out after the 5th person pointed this out to me. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837/60 "2006-09-24T14:23:45Z")
I don’t really own anything all that unusual. Or, at least, I have some things that would be considered somewhat unusual in the US, but that were really not too uncommon where they came from. Among other weird things I have are: 1. A few teabags of coca leaf tea. I stuck them in my backpack and forgot about them at the end of a trip to Ecuador. They’re not particularly rare or interesting anywhere in the Andes, I think, but you don’t find them much here in North America. 2. A business card from an Andean (Kichwa) shaman. No, I’m not making that up. 3. A set of Russian nesting dolls from the late 80s/early 90s. Each doll is in the likeness of an important political figure from Russia or the USSR. The biggest doll is Yeltsin. The smallest is Tzar Nicholas II. (I don’t know how common dolls like that are these days. For all I know, this set of dolls will be a historic item in a couple of decades.) 4. A 10-cruzeiro (defunct Brazilian currency) coin. 5. My insect collection, which includes some pretty interesting specimens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-strangest-most-unique-thing-you-own/373837.md?page=4)