House in Progress Diary

A Bong?

Might be a piece of a Pipe though. I have an old pipe that the top part is actuaaly leather, so it very might have just rotted away.
Good luck!

Is it ceramic or wood? If ceramic... it sorta reminds me, size and dimension wise, of the tube-bits of old knob-and-tube wiring... is it possible to have a decorative element to the tube in the knob-and-tube wiring?

That is mega weird. Do you have any enemies that might be collecting bits of your hair, too? ;-)

OK. That is just NOT RIGHT. WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.

On another note: "hi" from Dave Kretz.

HAve you ever seen the episode of "The BRady Bunch" where they go to Hawaii and find the evil tiki god? Maybe you should throw this little guy out the window. Or return him to the volcano.
On a side note, I have a friend from Chicago, and she was telling me about how everyone buys little "St. Joseph" statues to bury in their yards to help with their houses (mainly to get luck with selling their home) Have you ever heard of that?
Maybe this is a old school St. Joseph icon?

I agree with C - it looks like a pipe, and to be quite honest, it looks like the type of pipe people like to smoke illegal substances out of. (Definitely NOT a bong, I can't even begin to tell you why that's wrong) and it might've been hidden in the basement by somebody who was trying to hide the fact that they were smoking (or maybe to hide WHAT they were smoking?) hmmmmm...

Very funny that, in a few days, Dave Kretz will be able to google his name and the words "wrong" and "bong"....and probably get this page :)

I don't know what it is, but I'd get rid of it as fast as I can. Not only is it ugly, it's rather Satanic looking. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

Looks like a pipe to me. How big is it? Wood? As for burying the St. Joseph statue, the legend is that if you bury him UP SIDE DOWN, you'll sell your house quickly....POPS"30"

My guess is that it is one of those decorative pully things that hangs from those ball-chain pull switch fixtures that are so common in Chicago... You know the fixtures that look like glass ashtrays up near the ceiling. I had one such fixture in my first apartment that had a hideous and strangely large stoplight 'decoration' hanging from it.

If it's a pipe, it's obviously never been used - plus, the 'suck side' hole looks too big.

Nevertheless, it's creepy - I personally wouldn't hang it from a lamp or smoke from that thing.

Hmmm....okay. This seems to be one for the "Misc" category. A pipe, an evil head, a bong, something for voodoo, pull chain ornament...I'm afraid to touch this thing now! It is carved wood, polished and stained. It is 3 1/2" long or so...it was SUPER grimy when it was found. (I cleaned it off.) I tried blowing into it...it's not a whistle. I think the eyes are made of tiny painted white glass beads. It looks like something used to be attached to the very top hole...that makes me suspect some kind of pipe. The holes are connected. It definitely seems hand carved.

DEFINATELY one piece to a decorative carved wooden pipe. When I saw his face, I knew exactly what he was because I have two pipes I inherited that are almost exactly the same, down to the weird beard and beady eyes. Here's a couple similar ones on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=69773&item=6114603207&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=69773&item=6113874076&rd=1

He's totally harmless. I say put him back in the wall or ceiling - give the next person to work on your house 50 or 100 years from now a little thrill!

Thanks amazing research work, Jeff! Thanks! I think he's our guy!

Uh...Donna, you didn't happen to live at the corner of Greenwood and Glenwood, did you?

He's cool. I would definitely put him back in the ceiling or the wall. Maybe put a little note with him. Don't mess up your housing karma by removing him. *wink*

Tully - Nope... Burling and Wrightwood. Right across from the Wrightwood Tap, and man, am I glad to not live there anymore.

If this was ever used to smoke anything, no matter how far back, it would still have the smell of tobacco or "other substance" smell.
That might give you a clue as to the use. No clue about the origin though

OK, just wondered...in our last apartment we had the exact same thingy on one of our lights. I couldn't believe there'd actually be two of them...they're so ugly...

Is this a strange TIKI light pull? We did have a room full of tiki-related paraphernalia at one time...