1. “Almost looks like a fridge with a seat in it, and an opening for your head?? About 4 or 5 feet tall I think.”
Answer: Personal sauna.
2. “One of my neighbors has this ceramic stirring cabbage. It has a wooden stirrer with a notch that it fits in, it was purchased in 1958.”
Answer: It’s a coleslaw mixer. Put the shredded cabbage in there. Put dressing in there. Mix it up.
3. “Found this in a kitchen drawer. It’s stiff but still bends a little. What is this thing?”
4. “Hard, round, white sphere with ’hot or cold’ words and pictures”
Answer: It’s a Mentos limited edition “This or That.”
5. “A scissors-like device I bought years ago at a flea market”
6. “3 pieces, around 150 grams, greasy but solid substance in the bottom part”
7. “Today we found a large (bigger than a beach ball) white wooden spheric structure at the beach along the Baltic Sea.”
Answer: It’s an anchor ball. Day signals are used by ships when anchored.
8. “These bakery window decorations from Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
Answer: Knäckebröd. The movie’s aesthetics is heavily inspired by a trip Miyazaki took to Sweden.
9. “A gray roller-like thing, it is made from iron, the spiral part rolls, saw it in a store, nothing written on it, weighs about 150 g.”
Answer: It’s a grill scrubber for cleaning grill grates.
10. “What is this thing? A metal spoon with a spout-like end.”
Answer: It’s a saucier spoon, a mini sauce ladle. They sometimes have spouts.
11. “This is a steel wire frame with 2 glass marbles. It was found in an old garage among various stuff. The marbles can turn inside the frame.”
Answer: It’s a razor blade sharpener.
12. “About 3 feet tall, gold-colored, but silver inside — it’s hollow like a bucket, pretty lightweight.”
Answer: It’s a grape hod. It was used for collecting the harvest from the vines.
13. “Found at a used bookstore. All parts rotate and the markings/months make me think it could be for mapping.”
Answer: It’s an astrolabe, the ancient-times GPS. Used usually for navigation, also for time measurement and other scientific uses.
14. “What is this? I was at the zoo today and saw these in the giraffe exhibit. They appear to be made of dirt and are about 7-10 feet in height.”
Answer: These are feeding/enrichment stations made to look like termite mounds. I’m a former zookeeper and have made these.
15. “Small pointy curved metal attached to bicycle frame, point facing front of bike.”
Answer: That is to hold an air pump. There should be another one on the opposite side.