Souvenirs
 

I was thinking of putting this in the Dodads thread, but I'm not sure if it would fit in.

I've got this lighter I picked up from a street vendor in Singapore. I actually bought two of them at the time, for maybe US$1 each. They were "merlions," a symbol of Singapore being sort of a combination of a mermaid and a lion.

Open the top, and it starts playing the theme from Titanic... off-key.

When I had both of them, I could open them both at once and they would both play off-key, but in different ways. I've joked often that this lighter could make me stop smoking.

I gave one to a friend of mine, just to make fun of her because she likes the theme from Titanic (she actually thought the lighter was pretty cool). Now mine has a hard time lighting, so it's pretty frustrating having to listen to more and more of the song before the bugger actually lights. For that reason I no longer use it.

Yeah. A red light goes on when you open it too.

Anybody else have interesting souvenirs?

That's pretty wild. Do people ask you for a light, just to see it? What kind of fuel? Someone gave me a lighter for Christmas that was a female torso with 3 red lights. It went right in a drawer and I haven't seen it since.:eek:

Maybe like these?

Yup, RG 7100.:blush:

People who've seen it before run when I take it out of my pocket.
:p

I haven't taken it to parties or anything in a while though. I don't know much about lighters, so I'm not sure what fuel it takes. It looks like it's refillable though.

Wedding Ring
 

Also, if you are a fan of off-key renditions of "My Heart Will Go On," there is a good one in a short film by Steve Oedekerk, "Thumbtanic".

Back on topic, this is not a souvenir from my travels, but my grandparents. They were missionaries in Tanganyika (Tanzania) in the late '40s - '50s.

This is a wedding ring meant to be worn around the NECK. It is hard, heavy, pounded brass. I wish I knew more about it than that.

(Candy shown for scale).

Hrmm, now there's an idea for a spouse you think may wander....just weld one around their neck :)

Dagney
(going back to planning stuffs)

Wow, some ring. Hard to slip off in the singles bar.:D

and Brian sees that and goes "Hmmm!"

I'm surprised no one asked how one puts this on or how they get it off. I'm assuming someone wore this once. How did she (I'm assuming "she" as well) get it off? Well, I don't know the answers to any of those questions.

This used to be displayed in my grandmother's living room. I'd say it was in the very early '80s when I overheard some adults talking about it. "How do you get that off?" "I suppose we'd have to cut off your head!" Group laughter. Nightmares for weeks for little bmgb.

(Now, I've inherited the thing. But at least the nightmares have stopped.)

It appears to be brass and because of its origin I'd guess it soft brass. I'll bet it could be spread by hand by a strong man. It might take two. Like a bracelet it doesn't have to be completly closed to be worn without falling off.

That's what I was hoping. :D

It feels pretty solid to me. My dad can't get it to budge (but this is a guy who asks me to open jars for him). Next time I have a party I'll have to dare a couple guys to play tug of war with it.

Egyptian Scarabs
 

I will always associate these with the terrific creatures in The Mummy and other movies. In Egypt, though, they have always been amulets of protection.

Scarabs 2
 

I don't remember buying these. I was very ill the day we went to the marketplace.

The hieroglyphics on the back are of shoddy craftsmanship, but they're pretty cool.

Nice scarabs, I really like the blue one.:)

Ankh
 

Nothing I'm posting here is really that fantastic. A lot of it is low end craftsmanship and all I can afford when I travel on a shoestring budget. I guess the value is in the memories behind them. Although I don't remember much about buying the scarabs, I do remember buying this ankh along with some other identical ones (I gave to friends/family).

We walked at least a mile to the Cairo marketplace. Along the way a few men stopped us and offered to show us the "marketplace." My friend Suz shooed them off and said they weren't going to show us the "real" marketplace, but take us to a different one where everything is more expensive. I was sick with food poisoning or something, so I just staggered along.

We both wanted ankhs, and we found a guy who said he had some. We followed him into the basement of his shop where we sat down and he offered us tea. Suz refused for us, and though I thought it was pretty rude, I didn't say anything because I didn't care at that point. Suz made some small talk with him, but was trying to hurry him along so we could buy the ankhs and get out of there. He asked me what I studied in college, I murmured something. Suz lightly kicked me and said, "Um, she's been taking some, uh, business classes!" (I sneered at Suz for her choice in what I was studying). I wasn't hurrying things along because I was happy to be sitting down.

The conversation got around to how many camels we were worth. I guess camels are given as a sort of dowry around there. The guy offered to tell Suz how many camels she was worth. He made her turn around and then he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up from behind. He copped a good feel. I couldn't believe she let him do that. (This is a woman who once scolded me for letting a guy freak me in a nightclub.) "Ah, 130 camels!" He did the same to me, but I crossed my arms in front of my chest so it wasn't as much fun for him. "150 camels!" (Apparently, poundage = camels. Well, Suz probably weighs less than 130, but he was just being nice to her). As a result of this, Suz haggled a really low price for the ankhs.

So when I gave away my extra ankhs, I said to the recipient, "We got groped for this ankh." I keep one for myself just to remember.

Cool, do you know what kind of metal the are? Oh, and how big?

I think it's soft brass. This one is maybe 3 inches tall. Some of the other ones I had were half that size.