Sometimes the universe is just creepy.

February 22, 2013 3:45 PM

As the previous Secret Quonsar threads have been closed, I thought I'd share the weird coincidence our giftenating hath wrought. (Anyone else have odd MetaFilter connections to share?)

My Second Chance assignment for Secret Quonsar was a MeFite from Seattle whose name wasn't super familiar. Her suggestions were fun (SOCKS!) but pretty standard -- nothing that made me think, "Hmm, do we have some sort of connection?"

Weeeell... the weeks went on a bit and I thought, "Oh, crap; don't want to make her a third-chancer!" so I ran down to the closest Store With Fun Things, which happened to be the University Book Store. Admittedly, the "regional specialties" route is the easy way to go; in addition to some other random stuff I ended up with cow socks with "Wisconsin" on the tops, a bunch of campus/Madison postcards, and (of course) a Cow Pie and some Udderfingers. I actually rejected several cool things for being too Wisconsiny; I thought, "It would probably be weird for this person near that OTHER UW (feh!) to have a bunch of random Badger stuff. Ah, well."

My quonsee got her stuff yesterday. If I had gone to a different store, I probably wouldn't have gotten this message:

I was so happy to get a box full of Wisconsin! I'm from there (grew up in $NEARBYTOWN) and my parents still live there. I went to UW and got married there (reception was at the Memorial Union ... we took pictures out on the Terrace and the whole place stood and started clapping for us - totally surreal). Do you know $FRIEND? She works in $MADAMINASOFFICEBUILDING too (or at least used to). [Yep, I know who that is.]

And then, after I sent her the requisite "Uh... you're kidding me. Also, do you know [GUY FROM YOUR HOMETOWN IN MY HUSBAND'S BAND]?" message, I clicked back on her profile. We have the same birthday.

*twilightzone*

posted by Madamina to MetaFilter-Related at 3:45 PM (44 comments total)

I got a cheese making kit!

It wasn't spooky at al, and now I feel left out.
posted by The Whelk at 3:54 PM on February 22

Have you made the cheese yet though? Therein may lie your spooky
posted by Katine at 3:57 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]

I'm telling you, man: at Camp MetaFilter, you bring the hot tub and I'll bring the party.
posted by Madamina at 3:57 PM on February 22 [4 favorites]

Dairymancy! The most dangerous of the dark arts.
posted by The Whelk at 3:59 PM on February 22 [24 favorites]

....because the Secret Quonsar was coming from inside the house!
posted by panboi at 4:00 PM on February 22 [10 favorites]

Mostly though, the universe is just awesome.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:33 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]

I actually got an actual Secret Quonsar.

But I wasn't supposed to tell you about it.

(Oh and great story...love when that happens...)
posted by salishsea at 4:34 PM on February 22

My Secret Quonsar sent me combs for my hair and a chain for my pocket watch. Unfortunately, I had to sell my pocket watch to buy the uranium I sent my Secret Quonsee. And then my hair fell out. Stupid universe!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:52 PM on February 22 [57 favorites]

I walled my SQ into a wall after promising him a fine wine.
posted by The Whelk at 4:55 PM on February 22 [10 favorites]

I would always stand in a walled niche if it meant getting some fine amontillado. Just for your future reference in case I am ever your SQ, The Whelk.
posted by bearwife at 5:19 PM on February 22

Thus quoth the raven: "Everclear!"
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:24 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]

This sounds rather jolly good fun.

Meanwhile, in the parallel and oft-scary universe known as the library sector, an anonymous "librarian" is sending banana slicers to many librarians.

Think I prefer the non-banananess of Secret Quonsar.
posted by Wordshore at 5:42 PM on February 22 [3 favorites]

Who would have thought my SQ could have so much blood in him?
posted by DU at 6:11 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]

Hold on while the I Ching casts me
posted by Sailormom at 6:28 PM on February 22

Heh, my secret quonsar story of interestingness also includes Madamina. She tends to ask me to reach out to her secret quonsees and ask them questions on her behalf, which I recently did for her.

Then her secret quonsee apparently felt I was such a good intermediary that he asked me to reach out to his secret quonsee and ask her some questions. So I did that, and explained how I happened to be writing to her:

I am not your Secret Quonsar. I am not your Secret Quonsar's Secret Quonsar, either. But I'm friends with your Secret Quonsar's Secret Quonsar, and she asked me to pass a message to him, and he has now, in turn, asked me to pass a message to you. All of which is complicated and unnecessary back story, but it's nearly 3 in the morning and I can't sleep, so complicated and unnecessary seems amusing to me.

She declared the connection to be awesomely roundabout, which you have to admit it was.

Except we both actually regularly hang out on the same forum on Ravelry, so despite the roundaboutness of us meeting touching base on MeFi, we already kinda knew each other from elsewhere.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:29 PM on February 22 [4 favorites]

The Whelk: "Dairymancy! The most dangerous of the dark arts."

It wasn't always like this, she knew.

Before the Rind ascended, she had enjoyed evenings in the pub, chatting with the cute broker from uptown. They would grouse and gripe about the daily grind, with some heavy flirting mixed into the generous pours of smoky cabernet. When he said he was running documents down on a farm in the foothills, she'd thought little of it.

At first.

Looking back, she hoped he died quickly, but held doubts. The cows didn't just turn murderous overnight; they gained strength and sadistic determination that seemed more properly the domain of lions, or eels.

Definitely not cows.

After the farms and abbatoirs fell in the first few hours, there was a dazed lull before the government began issuing orders. Some people followed them; they died. Most didn't, and they died too. She wasn't sure why she still lived, holed up here in this dank, musty hole.

He Who Must Not Be Pasteurized had curd-catchers out nightly, now. They catcalled en masse to the rocky outcroppings, which gave her hope. There might be others, out there, hiding in the darkness.

Hiding from the screeching, grinding Churns, the Udder-Naughts, the hideously disfigured Legions of Brie.

There might be others. She kept her doubts. The pub, the cute broker, the last half-wheel of Stilton.....they were all gone.

Time to get moving, she thought.

You stay still, you get cold. you grow mold.
You stay still, you get cold. you grow mold.
You stay still, you get cold. you grow mold.

Time to run. And keep running.

posted by lazaruslong at 6:37 PM on February 22 [24 favorites]

lazaruslong, I don't know what that is but I like it.
posted by vegartanipla at 6:45 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]

You sober?
posted by cjorgensen at 7:08 PM on February 22

My secret quonsar and I both procrastinated about signing up for the SQ event...until it was too late. BOTH of us. And so we both got NOTHING! We are both eerily dedicated to getting a jump on things next year.

(Sorry about the snark....I am actually really jealous of all the fun things people have related about SQ....I hope my counterpart out there in the universe really exists...)
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:14 PM on February 22 [4 favorites]

Of all the quonsars in all the world, my secret quonsee lives less than 20 miles from me.
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 7:44 PM on February 22

Of all the quonsars in all the world, my secret quonsee lives less than 20 miles from me.

Did you hand deliver it? In college, I once sold a textbook on Amazon to someone who lived a few streets over from me. He paid for expedited shipping and oh boy did he get it. I was sorely tempted to show up at the class on the first day and call out his name, but I figured the professor wouldn't be so amused.
posted by zachlipton at 9:08 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]

I once had a SQ whose house is a 5 minute walk from mine.
posted by mollymayhem at 9:20 PM on February 22

It's Raining Florence Henderson: "Thus quoth the raven: "Everclear!""

We have a bottle of Everclear sitting here, which was bought by one mefite for another (none of whom are the mefites resident here), and which has for various reasons never been delivered to the recipient mefite, and so sits on our living room floor instead.
posted by gingerbeer at 10:36 PM on February 22

OH! I forgot, I got my SQ's gift during my visit to the New York Historical Society during this story so if you're in town, hit up the NYHS, you too can buy a mug and maybe get an upsetting atemporal experience.
posted by The Whelk at 10:46 PM on February 22

One year my SQ was the sister of a former colleague of mine.
posted by nat at 11:32 PM on February 22

jacquilynne: Madamina tends to ask me to reach out to her secret quonsees and ask them questions on her behalf.

DAMMIT JACQS

THE FIRST RULE OF SECRET QUONSAR CLUB IS YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SECRET QUONSAR CLUB
posted by Madamina at 11:37 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]

Yeah, her cover has been blown.
posted by Area Man at 2:52 AM on February 23

We've had someone draw her husband as her giftee thus prompting a redraw.
posted by IndigoRain at 3:00 AM on February 23

You have a Secret Quonsar. In your pants.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:55 AM on February 23

PSA: There's still a few SQ presents pending from Second Chancers (who are all uniquely wonderful people) and some people who still haven't gotten back to the SQ elves. So if you have received your present and haven't done so already, please let us know.

Please continue placing your SQ wherever the fancy takes you.
posted by arcticseal at 6:03 AM on February 23

Quonsar is about giving. Oh, yaee to thee who have not offered to loan cash money to our beloved.
thats the secret. anything else is luz. So, I second Madaminas' comment.
posted by clavdivs at 6:51 AM on February 23

oh
posted by clavdivs at 6:51 AM on February 23

I hope my second chancer got her gift!
posted by k8lin at 7:44 AM on February 23

OMG, Tandem Affinity, I think I might have been your similarly procrastinating secret quonsar! See you next time!
posted by Weeping_angel at 7:46 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]

I too had a weird coincidence the other day.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:58 AM on February 23 [2 favorites]

No SQ connection but I recently read a book that had "Madamina" as a title within the book (not the title of the book).
posted by deborah at 11:20 AM on February 23

It sounds convoluted, but someone I know from a Facebook group (who, it turns out, graduated from my high school with the brother of a good friend of mine) is friends with a MeFite from a small European that I friended on Facebook because, hey, we're on MetaFilter. Small world.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:44 PM on February 23 [1 favorite]

My SQ got me the same set of cocktail bitters as my boyfriend got me for the holidays.
posted by mlle valentine at 1:51 PM on February 23

I got a banjo. Not sure what to think.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 2:22 PM on February 23 [7 favorites]

is friends with a MeFite from a small European

I’ve also made friends from a small European!
posted by bongo_x at 2:50 PM on February 23 [2 favorites]

You have a Secret Quonsar. In your pants.

I wondered what that was. Is there an over-the-counter remedy, or is it just safe to eat?
posted by wallabear at 3:32 PM on February 23

Two or three years ago Metroid Baby was my quonsee. This year, I was her quonsee! That reminds me, I still have some of the hot chocolate she sent! I think I'll make myself a cup!
posted by vespabelle at 6:20 PM on February 23

My very first Secret Quonsar just happened to have the same birthday as me.
posted by royalsong at 5:50 AM on February 24

Elsa and I have the same birthday (same year too) and were both native Texans and also lived in the same NH town...at different times. Because of that we have many RL mutual acquaintances but we never met through them, only through MeFi. As we have many similar affinities (cooking, archaeology, light snark) it was weird to gradually discover these additional facts.

I love stories like these and have a few in life. The most surprising happened in college. I worked in summer camp and shared a cabin with a co-counselor who was a very close friend. We had a little in-jokey phrase at camp that was a big meme that summer. Anyway, camp ended and I headed back to school where there was no overlap with people from camp. One day, a guy who was close friends with my college roommate came up to me in the dining hall and dropped the popular camp meme. I could not understand how he would have known it (this was not only pre-Facebook but basically pre-internet). Turned out that he was the longtime boyfriend of my co-counselor's roommate back at her college - something unbeknownst to all of us until the counseor and her roommate put the pieces together and told the guy to surprise me.
posted by Miko at 10:33 PM on February 24