Mystery Reveal! Winners and (gulp) losers!

I'm so excited to post this reveal.  A few days ago, I displayed this Mystery Jewel:

And asked you to guess the origin of the bangle.  There were many great guesses.  Curtain rings, drip hoses, o-rings.  A bicycle inner tube.  A power cord.  Uh-huh, very good, very good.  All quite plausible.

So who got it right?

Nobody, that's who!  This was a first - I stumped you all!  Hee hee hee ha ha!  I got you, I got you!


Here is the actual answer...

That is my car, a 1986 Isuzu Trooper.  (Spiffy, eh?)  A little while ago, she stopped running.  Jeff opened her up, got her running again, and in the process removed this:

It's rubber, it's hollow.  It's an automotive vacuum hose!

It sat on my dining room table for a week, taunting me with its dark beauty, until finally I turned it into The Mystery Thing.

Despite your crushing, humiliating defeat at my hands, four winners will be chosen anyway.  It was tricky figuring this out.  Several people mentioned a car.  Several others mentioned a rubber hose or tubing.  Nobody mentioned both.


I felt it would be fair to pick the first person to mention a car, Periwinkle Dzyns!  And the first person to mention a hose: Betsy!  Next, congrats to the random number chosen by my mom: Kaci!  Finally, I had to give one for weirdest guess.  That goes to Lisbonlioness, who said: "is it one of them rubbery things that keep the cat food bowls from sliding all over the kitchen floor?"  Um...noooo.  But I love that such a thing exists.  Yay to you all!

Expect an e-mail from me shortly.

Okay, everybody, thanks so much for playing along!  I guess that's all for today, and...

Oh, wait.  Hang on just a minute.  Before you go...a little unfinished business remains.  I think you all know what I'm talking about.

I stumped you.  According to the rules of the game, you each owe me a Mini-Bonbel cheese or a photo of yourself with "Mich L. in L.A." written across your face in eyebrow pencil.  Sorry, you guys - time to pay up!

Bwah ha ha ha!


(Okay, if the eyebrow pencil is too much, I will accept a post-it stuck to your forehead.)


Wasn't that fun?