Comments on: In the Archives: Normal for Girls to Smoke?

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:32:34 +0000

I have a Godzilla lighter that you pull down the tail and flames shoot out of its mouth. But I don’t think that’s what this is. Novelty lighters are a fairly recent invention.

By: Irene Hieber

Irene Hieber — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:44:50 +0000

I am going to take a wild guess that it has something to do with smoking. Could it hold a cigarette so that the girls did not get the nicotine stain on their fingers? The tail could loop over the fingers & the cigarette be placed in the paws. Or maybe it is a cigarette lighter? I do think it looks more like a cat than a squirrel.

Irene Hieber

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:41:48 +0000

p.s. A squirrel doorbell would be cute. Would it make that rackety scolding chattering that squirrels make when they are indignant? :)

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:40:13 +0000

Jim: Oops. That is my mistake. I usually list the last-column winners in the M.A. section, but I overlooked that. I apologize–you did indeed guess that the artifact might be a fan. Please excuse my oversight–it was an inspired guess for a very puzzling object!

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:39:06 +0000

The tail looks like it should hook over something. Maybe you hook it over the top of a door to provide a place to hang your hat.

But it could also be mechanical. The front paws could go up and down, maybe to crack nuts as cmadler suggests. Or maybe it’s a doorbell. You hang it over your fence, and when visitors pull down the paws it makes a squirrely (or cat-like) sound.

By: cosmonıcan

cosmonıcan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:58:47 +0000

No doubt you mentioned “fan” Jim; the idea of samurai’s going around hitting each other with fans though, kind of brings to mind some old comic in drag acting silly, like Milton Berle or Benny Hill.

The squirrel does look to have some mechanical parts, at least there appears to be a slotted screw head near the shoulder blade. That is, if it is a squirrel, looks a lot like a cat to me, licking it’s paw; skinny tail for a squirrel. The base of the tail too, looks flat, like it can slide between the haunches, in the action of a lever. Maybe it’s the trigger for a “Mousetrap” game, or a nutcracker, waves a flag or plays the ukelele? Can’t say I know.

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:07:37 +0000

I don’t get credit for getting the artifact right last time?

By: abc

abc — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:00:28 +0000

Yes the clippy things. I have seen them used inside on tablecloths (to hide wrinkles or fold marks?). I thought that maybe they had a long history and were once some kind of chipmonk or squirrel or other rodent with a curly tail hanging from a loop. OK, so I made it up.

All I can say is I look at that thing and I see (functionally) weight and a hook; I see no moving parts. I assume that ‘rodent paperweight’ or a ‘rodent decoy’ are not the correct answer as those functions would NOT fit with this being a ‘mystery object’ nor would they fulfill your tease that this has an ‘unexpected function’.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:52:03 +0000

Sorry about the delay in responding and for poor-quality Mystery Artifact photo (taken via candlelight!); our power was out last night. Some interesting guesses!

cmadler: We certainly have enough of the real thing in the backyard and they do love our long-leftover Xmas nuts!

Joan, that is fascinating to learn that there was still some degree of stigma to women smoking as late as the 1950s! But I wonder what it was about *walking* that was so offensive (as opposed to smoking on the Diag, say). Hmm…

ABC: Now you are stumping me. I have never heard of a weight for a tablecloth. I’ve only seen those clippy things that you put around the edges of picnic tables to keep a tablecloth on. Are the weights you’re thinking of similar?

By: abc

abc — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:55:41 +0000

It looks too big to be a weight for a tablecloth (do those things have names) but I think that hooked tail is the key to its “unexpected function”.