...a masturbatory aid ?

Not glass.

Right, it's an old glass insulator. I haven't been able to figure out what happened to it.

Heated, then rapidly cooled, you think? ...But why would somebody do that? ...???

Yea, insulator from an old telephone pole, we have a whole stretch of RR that has miles of them. Mostly green ones.

Maybe it got zapped by lightning?

I think I had these 2 back in the do-dad thread. My Dad told me that someone heated in oven then dropped in water. Why? Not a clue.
Anyway we used them for target pratice when kids along RR tracks.

Yes, this is often done with marbles to get the crackled look. (My grandma had lots of these, and I asked her once)

Some people like the look of it, for using in crafts etc.


BTW, I tried this, and most of my marbles cracked, but fell apart. There is an art to getting just the right temp difference. --No cracks about losing my marbles etc. Too easy!

The clear one on the right got struck by lightening, which heated it/melted part, and the rain cooled it fast enough to get the crackles.

So, y'all think it was done purposefully, for artistic effect... I don't know.

I guess mine are more like "What's Wrong With This Picture?" ... or "What The Hell Happened Here?"

There be two creatures in that there pic that shouldnt be there.

Lizard of some description? after a crickety looking snack?

It's a wasp nest, that's why I took the picture. Only afterwards did I see the lizard. Noteworthy because I just opened the housing to remove that snipped gray wire, which the previous owners had Macgyver'd onto the outdoor floodlight fixture, to get electricity for a pond pump motor in the backyard. The front panel of that box had been screwed down, with enough space to let that gray wire run out the side. Yet... there's a fuckin' menagerie in the damn thing when I open it.

I wish I had pictures of me up on top of the 6" wide hand rail I was standing on, with a broom in one hand and a pokin' stick in the other, stirrin' up those wasps and then takin' swats at 'em, Kung Fu style; but my wife didn't see the humor and made me get down. Then she made some comment about "life insurance" or some such, as I recall...

Anyway... Here's one more I've been saving for The Cellar:

Reminds me of the retired guy across the street who bought a garage sale snowblower about three sizes bigger than his driveway. He was scrawny and not particularly big. The thing drug him around something awful, but once he had it going, everyone in the neighborhood got their driveways blown clear.

This guy looks like he's on a mission.

He better slow down in that school zone!

I recall seeing an episode of Cops, I think, where there was a dude riding his lawnmower down the street. Problem was that he was piss drunk. And apparently you can get a DUI on your John Deere.

Edit:
I love youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-UNSmYmBuI

Looks like he is either cruisin' on the sidewalk, pickin up the leaves or cuttin some really dead grass.