Mystery Object

[steepholm]

Someone left this out for the binmen, and I thought it looked such a nice whatever-it-is, and in such good condition, that I had to have it. It turns on its base something lovely. At first I thought it was a shoe rack - but it's too small for that.

I'm sure everyone knows what it is except me...

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Well, I thought shoe rack too. Maybe a shoe rack for someone with small feet?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Possibly. A Start-Rite display stand?

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

umbrella stand?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps, but not a very well designed one if so. Room for 3 umbrellas at most, sticking out in awkward shin-catching angles and without any real drainage...

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Is it too small to be a wine bottle twirly thing?

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to go with the wine rack theory too.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I just tried a bottle - the gap's too narrow, sorry!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Magazine rack? I know I've seen those, way back when, but I don't remember the context.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Could be! Seems mightily unuseful if so, though. (Perhaps that's why they were throwing it out?)

I've rubbed and rubbed, and I'm still waiting for the rack-genie to appear and offer me three wishes...

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I'm with the wine twirly thingy, assuming it's wide enough to hold a bottle.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Alas it isn't. I'm not sure I like my wine twirled, anyway!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

But did you try it with the bottles lying on their sides? Or perhaps it's some badly designed CD rack? Or it came with little dishes that fit in each layer for space age serving?

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Boot rack?

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Prototype for a a ginormous Hugo award?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I like it! Maybe that's what I'll tell visitors.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I've cracked it. It doesn't have to be anything. It's a mathom!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

:-) I already have quite a collection of those - how did I fail to recognize it?

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

All mathoms are different!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

My husband suggested a fruit rack -- apples and oranges and what not. Or possibly canned goods, though it would take up a lot of room in a cupboard. I think if it were something like that, it would be rounder, not just two-sided.

Actually I think it is some sort of specialized display thing for a store. It might even ordinarily go entirely under the whatever-it-is that sticks out of it, if you see what I mean.

Do you have a cat? Is it a cat-swattable thing? (I mean the cat swatting it, not you swatting the cat with it!)

Helen

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The gaps are too narrow for standard cans, alas. One can stick in bananas, however, and make a Christmas tree in the style of X's^* fruity headdresses of yore! Excellent for Southern Hemisphere festivities.

The cat swatty thing is good, but for the lack of cat. And although it rotates, it dates quite a bit of paw power to make it do so.

* I want to say Carmina Burana here, but I know that's not right!

[(Anonymous)]

Carmen Miranda.

I'm reminded of a college friend singing "Carmee-na, Carmah-na, Buree-na, Burah-na, Let's call the whole thing Orff."

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've been caught out more than once by a capella/Acapulco, too.