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Vanishing teaspoons? (the thread featured in the NEW SCIENTIST!)

When I moved out of my house I naturally assumed that all the teaspoons, socks, biros and everything else that had gone missing over the years would turn up somewhere.

So how did it happen that after everything was packed up, the furniture gone and the house was empty, those items never turned up?
They weren't just hidden, they'd completely dissappeared! :confused:
 
And I thought it was just me!

The weird thing is, like spanglechick I don't drink tea or coffee, so in theory I shoudl also have all my teaspoons.

BUT I DON'T!!!!!!

I have bought three different sets of cutley over the years and still have missing teaspoons.

Tis the little house pixies I tell you.
 
It's well-known that teaspoons and Biros are alternate manifestations of the same underlying quantum object.

Proof: when you attempt to observe one, all you see is the other.

Obviously, there's a reflection of the fundamental asymmetry of the universe here too, because you can stir your tea with a Biro.
 
Bomber said:
can someone explain where my teaspoons are disappearing to ?
Click to expand...

there's a bloke down East Street market that sells 'em on, along with the single socks and other assorted flotsam and jetsam that disappears from our lives. (I reckon he has my spare sim card too :mad: )
 
And what about emery boards? When I was a kid an Aunt of mine had a home job packing emery boards. She gave all of us a huge bag each, and 30 years later I've still got more than half of them left.

BUT as far as I can remember, I've NEVER thrown one away. Where has that 30 years worth of emery boards gone? :confused:
 
rowan said:
And what about emery boards? When I was a kid an Aunt of mine had a home job packing emery boards. She gave all of us a huge bag each, and 30 years later I've still got more than half of them left.

BUT as far as I can remember, I've NEVER thrown one away. Where has that 30 years worth of emery boards gone? :confused:
Click to expand...

That would be the emeryboard fairy:

535185_L1.jpg


Ooh, you are awful . . . but I like you!
 
trabuquera said:
Personally I believe that the odd socks are seducing the spoons with stories of The Life That's Waiting Outside the house, and then taking them along when they disappear to the dimension of lost things.
Click to expand...
Very similar to my own theory...very few people connect the disappearing teaspoons with the disappearing socks. I have a friend who has a theory regarding socks. A significant proportion of socks are in fact Weresocks, and one of a pair will change colour every full moon.....and you thought it was only Werewolves you had to contend with...
 
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/331/7531/1498

BMJ said:
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal
cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an
Australian research institute
Megan S C Lim,Margaret E Hellard, Campbell K Aitken

Abstract

Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom.

Design Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting Research institute employing about 140
Click to expand...
 
:confused: Yeah, we were just wondering about this with ours... I mean, we moved here three months ago, 6 fresh teaspoons... now there only seem to be 2.

And it's just us, and we neither of us drink tea or milky coffee, so no real reason to take them out of the kitchen and leave them around the place in mugs...
 
Here we go :)

New Scientist said:
However, while engaged in some essential stochastic blue-sky research (otherwise known as idly surfing on company time) Feedback came across a discussion of possible mechanisms on the www.urban75.com bulletin boards. This confirms, anecdotally, that the phenomenon is as common in domestic South London as it is in labs in Melbourne. By far the most popular explanation on the site was "house faeries", though we rather like the proposals that "odd socks are seducing the spoons with stories of The Life That's Waiting Outside" and the more materialist "there's a bloke down East Street market that sells 'em on".

One contributor insists: "It is well known that teaspoons and Biros are alternate manifestations of the same underlying quantum object. Proof: when you attempt to observe one, all you see is the other. Obviously, there's a reflection of the fundamental asymmetry of the universe here too, because you can stir your tea with a Biro."
Click to expand...

Also mentioned here
 
trabuquera said:
Personally I believe that the odd socks are seducing the spoons with stories of The Life That's Waiting Outside the house, and then taking them along when they disappear to the dimension of lost things.
Click to expand...

TheWorldOutside.jpg


I need a new scanner :(
 
astronaut said:
Anyone seen the Feedback page of this week's New Scientist?
Click to expand...

Way to go, a thread I started makes The New Scientist .......... the scent of impending fame is strong and an endless supply of free teaspoons through a TV tie in just weeks away :cool:
 
rowan said:
When I moved out of my house I naturally assumed that all the teaspoons, socks, biros and everything else that had gone missing over the years would turn up somewhere.

So how did it happen that after everything was packed up, the furniture gone and the house was empty, those items never turned up?
They weren't just hidden, they'd completely dissappeared! :confused:
Click to expand...
I lost an Ella Fitzgerald CD like that as well. Still had the cover, but even when I moved out, it was nowhere to be found. :confused:
 
I hate things that vanish before your eyes - like when you put a key on the table and as you turn your back for a second, it's magically dropped into an alternative, invisible universe awash with lost things.
 
editor said:
I hate things that vanish before your eyes - like when you put a key on the table and as you turn your back for a second, it's magically dropped into an alternative, invisible universe awash with lost things.
Click to expand...

This always happens with gloves and my oyster card
 
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