Why is it when you ask a loved one about something lost, like keys, a wallet, your 45 calliber handgun, the loved one usually asks the infamous question…
Where was the last place you saw it?"
Now, thing is, if I knew the last place I saw the item in question, then the mystery would be solved. When I am hunting for the lost item, I am trying to think of the question above. If I could answer the above question, then the item would not be missing at all.
What do you think?
I think the last time I saw a question like this it was in the MPSIMS forum, but maybe it went astray to IMHO ?
Well… if they’re offering to help, there’s gotta be a starting point. Plus, they might have done something near there. “I dunno… I guess I put it over in the corner with the other stuff” “Oh, that was the pile I gave to the Goodwill people”.
See? 
Same here, crazy.
My wife does it to me all the time. But on the plus side, after we go through that inane interrogation, she usually finds what I’ve misplaced.
And when it’s her turn, and I turn the tables to ask her “Where was the last…”, she answers it patiently, lucidly like she’s hearing the Q for the first time. Then we look - and almost always find whatever it is.
One summer day, however, she’s on the front deck, gets stung by a bee. Her glasses fly off - presumably into the pachysandra - never to be found again.
Taken in perspective, this is a valid question.
As a different perspective, I offer Bono (the lead singer for U2) who, when looking for a lost item will
He still hasn’t found it, tho.
Was it likely that he left his car keys atop Everest? Prolly not.
Again, as a different perspective, I offer what a lot of people do when looking for a lost item. They leave no stone unturned.
How many times have you deliberately placed your .45 under a stone? Not often, I would imagine.
When looking for a lost item, the best way to proceed is
That’s all I can offer on this topic.
-Anga
IMHO, this is a valid question. For one thing, the last place I saw something is not always where it is. For instance: I have two sets of keys on my key clip; I keep them attached to one another and then clipped to my purse. Well, about a week ago, I needed the key for the van (I ususally drive the car, but needed the van for something), and I looked the last place I had seen it: on my key clip. But it wasn’t there. So we started tracking down where I had been previously. Turns out that the ring those keys were on was just a wire ring (like service stations use), and it had pulled loose and fallen off of my key clip in my car.
So, you can’t necessarily say “the last place you saw it is where it still is”. Also, often the last place you think you saw it is not really the last place you saw it. We tend to assume that the last place we saw something was where that thing usually is. Something about voicing your thoughts out loud seems to help. So, you say: “I can’t find my shoes” and someone says “Where was the last place you saw them?” You say “In my closet. . .Oh, wait! You know what? I did see them in the family room!” Mystery solved.
There is an anecdote about the 8th-century Islamic law expert, Abu Hanifah. Someone came to him with a problem: he had misplaced a bag full of gold coins and couldn’t remember where he had left it. So Abu Hanifah recommended he should go and pray.
When the fellow was in the middle of his prayer, suddenly he remembered where he had left his gold. Overjoyed, he ran back to Abu Hanifah to thank him. Abu Hanifah replied that he knew the Devil would use this means of distracting him from his prayer, and he should have completed his prayer without interrupting it. But it was a good way to remember where you’d put a lost item.
ehhh,
When, where is the last place you used it?
That’s the question.
My wife dosn’t usually lose things. But when she does. I can usually find it.
I have her routine down pretty well.
It’s not the last place you saw it, it’s the last place that you remember seeing it. “Where did I put my glasses… Let’s see, this morning I remember that they were on the shelf above my computer, let’s start there”.
I have that problem with my Mother, when I ask her if she’s seen anything that belongs to me - actual conversation from umm, a long time ago …
prolog - I’ve just spent 10 minutes searching the house [did everything bar lift the carpets and tear down wallpaper in my search]
Me “have you seen my Star Trek T-shirt?”
Mother “what Star Trek T-shirt?”
Me “the T-shirt that I have that has Star Trek written on the front of it”
Mother “No. Why?”
Me “because I cannot find it”
Mother “did you look in the airing cupboard?”
Me “yes”
Mother “did you look in your wardrobe?”
Me “yes”
Mother “did you look in the drawer?”
Me “yes”
(I’ll cut this short she asked if I’d looked [insert place here] listing out all of the places I’d looked)
Mother “well where was the last place you saw it?”
Me (frazzled) " I can’t remember"
Mother “Well I don’t know where it is, you ought to be more careful with your things”
epilog about 6 months later (after my brother had gotten married and moved out) I found my T-shirt in the bottom of his wardrobe WTF it was doing there I have no idea, and when I showed it to Mother she looked blank and asked me where I’d gotten that T-shirt. I’m not telling you what I said
In actual fact, the answer to the question “Where was the last place you remember having it?” can’t be I don’t remember. If that were true, you would have no memory of the thing at all. You do remember some time having the thing, or you would not be looking for it now. So, however long ago it was that you are sure you had it, go there, and start looking, following your own path from there to all the places you have been since that time.
The thing itself may not be worth that effort. I have multiple sets of keys, each near where I will be when I need the key. (house keys in the car, car keys in the house, work key in the car, etc.) Keys are only a buck. I make a new one, if I lose one. Although they usually turn up later, if you just use the duplicate. Some things are worth the effort, but unfortunately, those things are the ones that get taken, when they are left unattended.
Tris
The question is an elliptical way of asking “where is the last place you are sure you had it?” or “what is the last thing you remember doing with it?”
To object that the person asking the question is not literally saying what they mean amounts to nothing. Lots of conventional speech is not literal. For instance, if Dad is looking for his wife and says to Son: “Have you seen your Mother”? it is clear he is asking, “have you seen your mother recently and, if so, where was she?”, not “have you ever, at any time in your life, seen your mother?” If Son examines the question critically and replies: “yeah: lots of times”, he is not being profoundly insightful, he is just being a smart ass. It is my observation that people sometimes feel like being a smart ass when they are embarrassed or frustration by a mistake they have made–such as when they are searching for something they lost.
In the last place that you looked. Why? Cause after you found it, you stopped looking…
Ironically, I often do find the thingee I’m looking for after someone asks me this.