Early Wednesday morning I was awakened from a stone sleep by a humongous crash. I groggily thought "something fell" and then I went back to sleep. Later, I arose not remembering the event. On entering the living/dining room, I saw that a large framed Japanese landscape reproduction which had hung quietly on the wall for 6 years had broken loose from its hanger screws, bounced off a wainscoting ledge and landed face down on the dining room table. Thousands of glass shards and slivers were spread on the table and nearby floor.

I was pissed at the mess but mystified too. Why, after 6 peaceable years, would this happen? A friend said, "this could mean something, you know". No, I didn't know. As far as I was concerned, it was a structural failure, an engineering thing. She thought it might be a spiritual sign, someone trying to communicate from "the beyond". She said I should be on special alert for more "signs", probably more subtle ones, in the near future.

Whatcha think? What would the Ya-Ya sisterhood think? I've never been into mystic stuff but you can never be too careful.

Who's that tap-tap-tapping at my pane?

-- (lars@indy.net), June 08, 2002

Answers

[swoosh]............if you flush the toilet it will flow........ [swoosh]

-- (voices@from.beyond), June 08, 2002.

Lars,

I wouldn't make a great deal of it. Sometimes failures occur very, very slowly.

To give you an idea, insulators are rated for "working" value, which is the maximum *sustained* voltage that you can apply. But you can actually put many times that voltage on the insulator for a brief period. As long as the voltage is removed before damage occurs, the insulator will be fine.

If you exceed that voltage, though, however slightly, you'll eventually hear a "boom." It could take weeks or months, but it WILL happen. :)

In your case, it may be the screws or the wood that helped hold the frame up. They were slightly overloaded and it took this long for them to work loose or to break.

It happens. And once they begin to fail, the failure is relatively rapid, with little warning, too.

-- Stephen (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), June 08, 2002.

Good morning Lars, Stephen

Lars, was the art made in the Philippines?

Or maybe it's the Mothmen. By the way, we watched The Mothman Prophecies lastnight, it was the weirdest scariest thing I've seen in a long time. Very good too, I recommend it.

-- (cin@cin.cin), June 08, 2002.

Stephen, I sota like those huge exploding capacitors myself, the ones where you hear a whistle starting out low, gettng louder (givingg you the general direction (you do not want to head for) and the huge Kaaboom as it explodes.

Lars, the wood the screw was set in may have slowly dried, pushing the screw out a little bit at a time. Now if the house (apt) was new when you moved in, (providing you moved in just before puting up the picture, then that could have been the cause, or maybe you have termites, or maybe just after time the screw unscrewed a bit. Or maybe Japan will be nuked.

-- Cherri (whatever@who.cares), June 08, 2002.

Larsie, if there is any blood leaking from the screw holes, be very afraid.

-- (duh@duh.duh), June 08, 2002.