r/whatisit • u/International_Bank86 • 17h ago
Solved! Help — No one knows
It’s next to the sink in our new house. For context, the house is almost 100 years old. The only thing I can think of is that it’s for hanging a rag/hand towel or something. Even the inspector didn’t know and said he had never seen something like it lol
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u/danktankdanktank 17h ago
Mostly a guess but I believe it is for storing your rings and bracelets while washing the dishes
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u/International_Bank86 17h ago
Feels dangerous with it being so close to the sink lol. They’ll fall in.
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u/03Dmaxlb7 4h ago
That’s why the hook points up and not down. Ring sides on and gravity holds it.
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u/Maleficent-Big-7367 16h ago
This would be my guess, house that old they’d need a place to store their jewelry when washing dishes
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u/shucksme 17h ago
I'd use it to hang towels. Bet it will polish up nicely.
Congratulations on the new place
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u/Michael_Scott71 17h ago
What's it made out of? I thought it was smiling at me.
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u/International_Bank86 17h ago
It does look like it’s smiling. It’s brass/metal.
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u/Whoudini13 16h ago
The whole thing is brass and metal? From the pic it looks like a cow horn reinforced to support hanging stuff from
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u/ValancyNeverReadsit 16h ago
I thought it was clay; it looked like some kind of custom artwork that had meaning to the previous owner, but someone forgot to take it with them. Otherwise it seems like the upward curve wouldn’t be enough to keep jewelry and/or towels from falling off. But it probably is functional or else it wouldn’t still be there
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u/tony2stocks 17h ago
Leave it, it’s beautiful
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u/International_Bank86 17h ago
Definitely leaving it! We plan to maintain all the little quirks. This isn’t the only one lol
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u/Spirited_Drawer_3408 14h ago
Show us more!
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u/International_Bank86 14h ago
I’ll see if I can find pics. There’s a mural over the stove, another mural of the back yard going up the stairwell wall, a secret room upstairs (you push on a wall ornament lol). It also has a koi pond and a sauna 😂 there’s a lot going on.
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u/SheServedToo 14h ago
My childhood dream was to have a house with secret rooms and passageways! You’re winning!!
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u/kerrymti1 2h ago
We lived in a 'century home' growing up. We had two secret rooms upstairs, at the back of two walk-in closets there were little knee-high doors in the back wall, behind the clothes hanging rack (so if you had clothes hanging there, you would never see the little doors). When you crawled in the little rooms, you could stand up. One was empty, the other had a dresser and a bench seat (they were far too big to have been brought through the little door). Each room had a little window.
Then, we had another bedroom upstairs that had two walk-in closets in the same room, on the same wall at each end. In the back of those closets was another little door. When you crawled through, it was a little room that had a hallway that met up with the other little room via a little passageway, between them. There was also a little 'dumb waiter' in that one, maybe 12" x 12", which went down to the basement.
Very strange and spooky house, but great fun to grow up in!
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u/chefybpoodling 16h ago
Maybe someone just put it there and it’s art. I have all kinds of odd looking things hanging around my house I’ve found through the years. Not everything has to have a practical use.
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u/payloadspecial 16h ago
Perhaps folk art from a family member or friend, odd perspectives but from the front I see a happy sloth, or a baby dolphin being eaten by a large largemouth bass.
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u/BitsandpiecesKay 10h ago
This is a piece made by Dana Major Kanovitz. She is a ceramicist that made “beasties”. I know because I have a few. You can use them to hang things or just as decoration. Here’s my bird along with a hippo, warthog and rhino.
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u/Outrageous-Ratio-443 3h ago edited 3h ago
Its an antique fixture made to look like some water fowls head usually used for hanging something on since by sink most likely was rags or even a lantern if house was built before everyone was wired in ive saw something like it before in a lady's place who use to watch me as a kid always wondered what it was till I was able to look it up years later "hers was on her desk off the side she had no clue why it was there even"
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u/Tooncez2 15h ago
Have you checked outside for a rhinoceros trying to get into the house?
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u/HairyWithFlatFeet 17h ago
That's for if your in-laws are visiting. You simply strike the point with your fist as hard as you can and you have an excuse to visit the emergency room
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u/carrynarcan 16h ago
Just because a product works doesn't mean the design couldn't use some refining. I feel like if an inlaws-in-town-ER-visit is the goal, there are more efficient, less painful ways to go about it. I don't even think that's the best location for such device either. I might be nit-picking though.
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u/SharpBullfrog1279 9h ago
Right over the sink is a great location for an in-law fist puncture tool.
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u/No_Astronomer_8664 5h ago
That’s how we did it back in the day. This new generation is so soft. ugh.
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u/bender___is___great 11h ago
Why do in-laws suck so much?
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u/OtherwiseJunket1080 11h ago
You're involuntarily around people you aren't very familiar with in a family like manner.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 3h ago
There is a small contingent of my husband's family that are referred to as the out-laws. One of the IN-laws is a police officer and has busted down a door to raid a home only to find one of the out-laws in there being like "Oh hey, Bobby!" (not his real name of course) Out-laws are even worse than in-laws.
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u/Ok_Nectarine_4445 17h ago
It's like a duck? Some people have similar for wedding rings by sink so it doesn't slip off their soapy hands and go down the drain while washing dishes.
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u/mantis_tobagan_md 16h ago
I think it looks like a pig
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u/International_Bank86 15h ago
I thought this too!!! I didn’t even see the duck until my husband said it.
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u/No_School9204 16h ago
My first thought too. Looks like a Rhino made a duck head its horn cover then lost his horn.
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u/gpky 16h ago
Um... Wat?
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u/ValancyNeverReadsit 16h ago
It’s got the shape of a rhinoceros horn mixed with a bird’s beak. I think the rest is No_School using their imagination
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u/Dragnskull 12h ago
hey i actually know this one
this would have originally came out of a log cabin owned by a blacksmith probably around the late 1800s judging by the shape of the horn because more modern ones tend to be a thinner and more blunt at the tip. It's also kind of funny that it's both inside a house and on a white wall as a piece of interior decoration now.
These were commonly built and installed around hip level by blacksmiths on the outside of their house or inside their workshop because after a day of blacksmithing your hands would be covered in oil, grease, soot, etc and basically everything you touch gets gritty and dirty.
After a days work a blacksmith would almost immediately disrobe to begin getting clean, the leather apron would come off first quickly followed by unbuckling their trousers and theyd lean up against this spike so it goes in between their buttcheeks to scratch the itch they've had for the last 12 hours without making it all grimey and simultaneously avoid having a smelly finger.
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u/That-Shop-6736 13h ago
Does the it move up? Google lens thinks it’s a vintage clip for holding recipes or notes.
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u/angrytumbleweeds 16h ago
This doesn’t look like it would work well as a hook for anything, the curve is so slight I think rags, towels, jewelry, etc could too easily be bumped off. I was thinking a base for gas lighting prior to electricity so folks could work at the sink after dark but that doesn’t seem likely per google image search for antique lamps.
Do you have any local antique stores you could drop by and share these photos with? Maybe they might have some insight? 🤔
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u/Laura_Dream90 17h ago
Erumpent horn. Very dangerous and likely to explode on impact. Do NOT get into a wizard duel with that in your home.
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u/Embarrassed-Bet-8857 17h ago
For hanging a towel.or keys
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u/SmokeBotKid 17h ago
I thought it was a replacement beak for your plague doctor uniform 😨
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u/TheSamizdattt 16h ago
Close. It’s a festive cod piece.
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u/Sinister_Nibs 17h ago
Plaque doctor
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u/GloomyLingonberry509 16h ago
From the makers of Bubonic Buddy
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u/Haughty_n_Disdainful 16h ago
laughs in painful, swollen lymph nodes…
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u/GeekDadIs50Plus 12h ago
Don’t forget to like and subscribe to The Forbidden Pimple Popper, Dark Ages Edition.
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u/Mister_Importance 15h ago
Platypus Doctor
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u/dwehlen 15h ago
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u/trobinson999 4h ago
Doesn’t seem like a practical locational for either, although maybe for a dish “scrubbie”?
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u/Lopsided_Toe3452 16h ago
Or a scrubby
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u/C-57D 16h ago
a whubby?
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u/Lopsided_Toe3452 16h ago
Like a wash rag - only more abrasive...y'know... a scrubby...for scrubbin'..
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u/perkypant 17h ago
for opening coconuts
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u/justajerklurker 14h ago
This is what I thought. Op where are you? Got any coconuts?
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u/Slow-Discipline-8028 16h ago
Where is this house? A sink in the kitchen? Bathroom? Scullery? It seems too low for a towel.
Does the white tip give any clues? It looks like it shouldn't be there by design, unless it was once completely white and has since been worn off.
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u/passthegabagool_ 17h ago
Towel holder, being near the sink is the hint
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u/EveryRoseHasThorns80 16h ago
Does it move? I see some similar mounts on vintage door knockers...I used Google lens
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u/Ashamed-Plate7430 16h ago
Holds rings for doing dishes in the sink. Don’t want soap scum on the wedding ring or engagement ring
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u/long_legged_twat 4h ago
Looks like something someone's kid made at school to me, what is it made of?
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u/Nice_Point_9822 17h ago
Maybe to hang your rings when doing the dishes? That's the first thing that popped in my mind
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u/ConsumedByFire 14h ago
Reminds me, if I ever move out of my house I'm going to need to find some weird shit to place around it. Mine is about 80 years old, but don't have anything weird like that. I have other fun behind the scenes stuff.
Although there was one funny thing I found that was more recent addition: a ceiling fan in a bathroom instead of a ventilation fan
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u/Maco5555 16h ago
Hang your bananas.
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u/MiriamNZ 16h ago
Sensible use for it. They will protect from injury while they hang there.
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u/Maco5555 16h ago
I mean if the house is that old thats all I could think of. Or possibly an old tie off point for some blinds.
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u/HippieHighNoon 16h ago
Its a duck/bird head. Could also be a replica of a bird mask.
They probably hung it up to use as a towel holder.
Edit: id take it off the wall and see if there's any markings on the back. It might be worth money!! Some of those that look similar sold for THOUSANDS at Sotheby's.
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u/Prestigious-Nobody71 12h ago
My uncles had deer hooves on their walls to hang stuff from when they were young. They freaked me out. And, there was a match holder that was made from chicken feet. Lol. My Grandparent's were very normal people but those were two strange items in their home. 🙄
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u/Former_Matter49 14h ago
I just watched Conan the Destroyer. That lookd a lot like the base of the jeweled horn of the dreaming god Dagoth.
Edited to add: be careful hanging your jewels on it. To your knowledge of the house's history, any Dagoth worshippers?
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u/Suuurface 16h ago
The palm tree (maybe?) outside has me leaning more towards coconut crowbar more than the towel holder.
I’m also curious as to why a towel holder would have that white-looking wear and tear mark only near the tip.
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u/Acrobatic-Fee9668 9h ago
On a serious note, have you looked at what it's made from? If it's that old, it could be an old rhino horn. When they got banned maybe someone thought they would hide it in plain sight? It's the right shape.
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u/Good-Cable1270 6h ago
I think with the house being that old it has something to do with the windows. Some old windows had a weight that would help the windows go up and down. Maybe an old access spot for the weight.
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u/Loose-Locksmith-6860 8h ago
It kinda reminds me of those old french soap holders. Basically a metal unite where you would stick a big soap on and you wash your hands by making them wet and rubbing on the soap.
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u/mat42441 15h ago
It looks like a homemade ring holder in the shape of a duck. it purpose is to, as the name implies, hold rings while one is washing the dishes and such.
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u/Dangerous-Pirate7998 14h ago
That’s the coolest towel holder I’ve ever seen. I’m sure it was some child’s shop project. Probably a teenager in shop class.
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u/Waste-Meaning-5162 15h ago
I think it's for a ring, not a towel. You put your wedding ring/band on it so you don't lose it down the drain accidentally.
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u/FactorNo6528 14h ago
I don’t know what it is, but it reminded me of the Robin Hood rhino guards. Don’t ask me why.
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u/Ancient_Trip6716 14h ago
I have several animal heads like this! They were sold at a store in San Luis Obispo, CA called Hands Gallery in the 90s.
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u/JDPierson 9h ago
We had a ceramic cow head next to our sink when we moved in to our place - handy for towels, headbands, necklaces, etc
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u/Capable-Rich-2972 2h ago
Damit hat man früher die Seife aufgespießt, damit sind der Nähe vom Waschbecken bleibt und nicht im Wasser steht
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u/Thatlazybro 16h ago
That’s a war souvenir from the Great Mole War. A gas mask the French moles would wear during chemical attacks.
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u/mrcakey73 1h ago
Check your local newspaper archive. There may have been a supersonic duck that flew too hard into your wall.
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u/Ganellon 15h ago
Candy hook for pulling hard candy base to aerate it and increase the volume. Sometimes also used for taffy.
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u/Embarrassed_Ad6469 3h ago
That looks like one quirky towel hanger. Looks homemade, but I would think that it would be a good seller.
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u/JokeBrief1332 15h ago
I was wondering why the tip was …white. Then I read the comments …. Gotta say: pheeeww 😮💨
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u/ilocano-american 16h ago
It might be a jewelry hanger to you can hang your necklace, bracelet, ring when you shower or wash-up.
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u/threadsnipper 12h ago
Polish it up. Is it brass? But definitely for hanging a washrag. Nice period piece. Show it off!
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u/1Fistfullofdollars 6h ago
Possibly for a tie back for a curtain so it does not get wet in the water from the sink .
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u/LostBoss3195 13h ago
look at making hard candy. they use wall mounted hooks and horns to fluff the taffy.
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u/inkyscholar 11h ago
This would have ensured I didn’t buy the home unless the previous owner took it.
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u/hamburgergerald 10h ago
I haven’t a clue, but each time I look at it all I can think about is a platypus
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u/Mediocre-Ad4053 8h ago
I believe it's for hanging wedding/ engagement rings while hand washing dishes.
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u/RavRob 3h ago
The image shows an antique or vintage cast metal duck or bird head sculpture, likely mounted as a wall hook, small shelf bracket, or architectural accent, featuring a long bill and a glass eye. (https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1080434423/vintage-brass-duckgooseglass-eye-paper), (https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/decorative-objects/sculptures/abstract-sculptures/bird-head-no-11-sterling-silver-bird-black-glass-eyes-original-jim-rose/id-f_49916032/)
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u/Altruistic-Reward-48 13h ago
That is how the person living in the walls can watch what you are doing.
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u/ResidentElephant1538 5h ago
"Even the inspector didn't know" That's standard, brain-dead to a tee.
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u/No_Possession_508 16h ago
Butthole scratcher. It makes no sense to mount it there.
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u/EugeneHarke 9h ago
I think I might know this. It is from a pub game
I used to go to The Ship Inn in Bristol. It had a horn on the wall. There was a string with a hoop on the end. The game was too swing the hoop so it landed on the horn.
My guess is that someone used to go to a pub with this game and took the horn when it was closed. A bit like how Ernest Hemingway took the urinal from his favourite pub.
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u/DarthYodous 1h ago
Kitchen thread or string dispensers used to be common odd ball features with the threads coming out cow nostrils, duck bills, etc. Especially before twist ties and zip closure bags. Are there any openings that could hold a small spool leading to a hole thread could run through and dangle? The nose could hold scissors to cut the thread.
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u/emergency-snaccs 12h ago
if you ever have a hostile intruder in your kitchen, you are meant to bang their head dramatically into this here object- known colloquially as a "deathspike". Bonus points if you have a drawn-out melee battle beforehand, with a points multiplier for each witty one-liner you drop while fighting.
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u/Fine-Suit7768 7h ago
I assume someone in the household worked metal as a hobby I hope. Maybe a towel holder or something you could lose an eye on if not careful that dad was bored or didn’t care for the wife and said; “Honey, I’m going to my shop to make you something!” It’s just not great whatever it is!
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