Best Of MetaFilter

They are called P A Y P H O N E S

Are you ... how shall we say? Of a certain age? For the over 50s, what used to be but is no more? People are sharing all the things in Ask Metafilter!

Illustration by Caroline, via Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/hills_alive/)

Got a random chatty question? Then hop over to HelpMe, an AskMetaFilter experiment for those idle questions floating around in your head!

It's throwback Thursday, so let's revisit this AskMetaFilter question from early 2021: What do you always recommend to people? Come learn about pining socks together in the wash, heated mattress pads, how to handle money, cheap cleaning solutions, and so much more!

How to catch an ice cream bear by David Blackwell. (cc by-nd)

Greg Nog wants to know what's the best chocolate ice cream; Mefites have the scoop.

Bizarre cult? Weird geo-caching thing? Red-herring by local eccentric? Unexplained Russian girl scout artifact? Prop for a play? Art installation? Alternate reality game? Film prop? What was this bizarre billboard on the Cornish coast.

Eve's Ear (Washington, DC) by takomabibelot

Yesterday's most compelling Ask Metafilter post is possibly best presented by nothing more than a summary of its tags: bug; ear; earcanal; insect; killitkillitkillit; resolved.

Malta 08-09-2006 17.00.44 by Heini Samuelsen (cc by-sa)

Members look back over their AskMe questions, reminding us things can get better over time

Photo quiz: Can you find the cat hiding in plain sight?

Grooming confessions: How and where do Mefites cut our toenails?

Can't transport enough fuel to your remote mining site? With 19th century ingenuity you can run your industrial equipment all on water power.

Falconetti says, "I was just on Jeopardy! a week and a half ago..."

Are salt grinders any good? furnace.heart answers, as a person who used to work in a retail salt store

NO JUNK MAIL, PLEASE by Cabanillas.- (cc by)

furnace.heart's super fucking glorious guide to stamping out junk mail

Strong Prime Spiralators by chrstphre (cc by)

It turns out there's an unintentional easter egg in AskMe. When you click Random Question in AskMe, how many clicks will it take you to arrive at this, the most likely AskMe question?

You had one job! by jessamyn (cc by-nc-sa)

On BGS ("Big Green Sign" - yes that *is* actually the technical term for them) assemblies, usually the letters are made of reflective metal that is riveted onto the reflective green background. ... I'm guessing PennDOT Region Whatever awarded a contract to some company to fix this sign to replace letters which may have fallen off due to premature rivet failure or other reasons. And PennDOT is NOTORIOUS in the roadgeek world for being CHEAP. Likely, they awarded the contract to the lowest bidder, who subsequently paid no attention whatsoever to MUTCD regulations and now you have this odd mixed case.

Great answer from tckma (and our introduction to the world of roadgeekery) to cortex's question (about a photo by Jessamyn) How do highway signs get (incorrectly) made?, including some wonderful links to AARoads forum threads on "Erroneous Road Signs," "Signs With Design Errors," and "The Worst of Road Signs."

Vegetarian Chili by ilovememphis (cc by-nc-nd)

Okay, folks, time to get serious now: *s wants to win the office vegetarian chili competition. Let us not fail our comrade in need!

In other news, the mythic quest for a seriously intense brownie recipe, and the dream of a for-reals healthy muffin.

Manifesto Di Propaganda by mariko2 (cc by)

But I'm also morbidly interested in the manifestos of evil and ill individuals - I poured over Elliot Rodger's manifesto looking for clues as to what went wrong, but also out of pure morbid curiosity: why was he so hateful? What drove him to do what he did?

Dressed to Kill wants manifestos: Feminist manifestos. Communist manifestos. Murder manifestos. The more the merrier. Send me your most interesting manifestos.

Fermi satellite

I’ve flown 7 satellites and supported two launches.

Rob Rockets with a great answer to krautland's question about the ins-and-outs of satellite operations.

bottom_cthulhu by missmonstermel

I have a thing for eldritch abominations, alien geometry, fridge horror, and general nightmare fuel. I want more, pretty please!

In Ask Metafilter: Feed me the nightmare fuel

Danger de mort by zigazou76 (cc by)

Does anyone know any other examples to scratch this itch of mine with a plugged-in soldering iron?

J.K. Seazer is looking for extremely emphatic warnings that something is a really bad idea and you should never do it.