resolved!

March 14, 2014 3:17 PM

I just found the book I was looking for in my very first Ask Metafilter post. I am so happy.

Back in 2006, I posted my first Ask Metafilter question, seeking identification of a book of fairy tales I left at the neighbor girl's house when I was 9 or so. Nobody could figure it out. Since then, I've searched for it every few years... usually just pulling up my Ask post from 2006.

But today! I was sick and bored and randomly decided to search again. Long story short, I discovered this website, and the stories described in this collection sounded exactly right. And lo and behold, turns out they've uploaded tons of videos of people reading the stories -- complete with the illustrations from my childhood memories (and my Ask). The bear in the trench coat. The sausage-nosed cartoon couple. The wild swans. The goblin rat.

This book meant so much to my fledgling writer & artist self, and I'm beyond thrilled to find it (even if it took 2 decades). A copy is on its way from Alibris right now.

Now I'm curious: who else has found the answer to an unresolved Ask way after the fact? How did you finally figure it out?

posted by changeling to MetaFilter-Related at 3:17 PM (20 comments total)

That's great!

Also, PSA, we now can add a "final update" to old closed AskMe threads for exactly this kind of situation. Would you like me to update your post?
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 3:19 PM on March 14, 2014 [6 favorites]

Absolutely, thanks!
posted by changeling at 3:20 PM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

changeling: "Now I'm curious: who else has found the answer to an unresolved Ask way after the fact? How did you finally figure it out?"

I'm not sure if 5 months counts as "way after" but I did find the graphic I was looking for in this question. I had used some of the text as my instant messenger status, one of the messengers I use is AIM, and it turns out that AOL actually gives you a feed of your AIM statuses (AOL Lifestream).
posted by capricorn at 4:49 PM on March 14, 2014

Oh, this is such a treat. What a delightful thing.
posted by SLC Mom at 5:52 PM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, how lovely! Congratulations on finding the book. I know how sweet the familiarity of a childhood book can be.

Also, PSA, we now can add a "final update" to old closed AskMe threads for exactly this kind of situation.

This is a great feature. Thanks for adding it, and for letting us know.
posted by Elsa at 7:39 PM on March 14, 2014

That's awesome. I don't have a comparable story in terms of "way after the fact," but AskMe has helped me find two childhood books that I hadn't been able to find through other means. It's a pretty great resource.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:03 PM on March 14, 2014

Wow! 2006? That's amazing.
posted by medusa at 9:56 PM on March 14, 2014

LobsterMitten, thanks -- I remember thinking there were some I wanted to update with something useful. I'll take a look.
posted by kalapierson at 10:19 PM on March 14, 2014

I eventually figured out this 2008 question about a mysterious Romanian folk song in 2011 ... it's this one.
posted by mykescipark at 10:27 PM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

There's a particular pleasure in finally resolving a question! I stumbled across a poem I'd asked about.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:54 PM on March 14, 2014

I just found the book I was looking for

Dammit, changeling, now I have that U2 song stuck in my head.
posted by heyho at 11:21 PM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]

Back in 2011 I asked this song identification question. The song wasn't called "Lazy Lout" but "Get Up, Get Out" and was recorded by The Weavers. Someone uploaded it to YouTube here. That particular version is from The Weavers' "Reunion at Carnegie Hall 1963".
posted by bjrn at 3:51 AM on March 15, 2014

In 2008, under a previous account, I asked about a Berni Wrightson comic.

I found it. "A Martian Saga," written by Nicola Cuti, is from Berni Wrightson: Master of the Macabre #3 (Pacific/Eclipse, 1983). It's possible that Master of the Macabre is a special anthology series and that it was in fact first printed elsewhere, but that's the book I owned as a kid.

Here it is:

one
two
three
four
five
six
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:39 AM on March 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

LobsterMitten: "Also, PSA, we now can add a "final update" to old closed AskMe threads for exactly this kind of situation. Would you like me to update your post?"

This is the antithesis to when I go looking for solutions to tech problems on the net. There is always someone who has posted exactly the same question on a forum somewhere, and soon followed up with "never mind, figured it out."

I'm convinced that it's just one person doing this every single time and he is my mortal enemy.
posted by vanar sena at 11:52 AM on March 15, 2014 [9 favorites]

"There's no such thing as a changeling."

Congrats on finding your book. I was the same when I saw "The Changes" at the top of a page of old uk kids tv programmes while helping a mate look for one he couldn't remember the title of. The Changes scared me shitless when I was about 5.
posted by marienbad at 1:01 PM on March 15, 2014

I asked about this book in 2005. Nobody knew. I randomly found the answer while looking up something else last year - go figure! This is the book in question.
posted by SisterHavana at 9:30 PM on March 15, 2014

I haven't resolved any of my own questions... but I have the answer to someone else's unresolved book ID Ask way after the fact, and have been wondering if I could do anything about it. (It's http://ask.metafilter.com/7148/YA-SciFi-Book from way back in 2004, and the book in question is a quartet, the Seven Citadels Quartet by Geraldine Harris... here's a review of the first volume that mentions everything the OP remembered.)
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:15 AM on March 16, 2014

Slightly different situation, but I had jeather come up with a solution to my childhood book problem after three years of nothing (except for people MeMailing me to ask if I'd ever found the answer, because they distantly remembered the book too and it was now bothering them). I was so thrilled. Then, the company that was re-publishing it got in touch with me.

I didn't know about the "final update" thing; I don't think it was around when my answer was finally revealed to me. If anyone feels like doing that to this question (answers: "The Mad Queen of Mordra" in Canada, "Billy and the Bubbleship" elsewhere, by Elwy Yost), I think it would be awesome!
posted by ilana at 11:06 AM on March 16, 2014

Aw man, I have that book and read it to pieces as a kid--the beige color cover edition is on my shelf right now. I'm sorry I missed your question in the first place.
posted by Tesseractive at 2:46 PM on March 16, 2014

In 2009 I asked for help in figuring out the title of Maybe a Monster by Martha G Alexander (1985). Figured it out 4 years later using advanced searches on WorldCat. That site has helped me avoid some other what's-the-title AskMes since.
posted by Kabanos at 1:25 PM on March 17, 2014