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Strange Gifts for Adults
Adult gifts drift toward wine and candles because those are safe. Safe is also how a present becomes forgettable by Tuesday. The alternative is an object with a behavior: lightning, a floating pot, a ball that has to stay on a track inside a sphere.
Nothing here is a gag. A gag is funny once. A glass mushroom lamp is still a lamp next month, and S. is still a novel you have to keep the inserts in order for. The strangeness is durable.
Why these
- Strange here means the object does something a normal version of itself would not.
- Adults are allowed a plasma globe. The trick is picking one that is actually well made.
- A book full of loose paper extras counts. So does a maze you cannot put down.
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Shouldn't exist · No. 01
Plasma Globe
A palm-sized glass sphere of miniature lightning that leans toward your finger when you touch it.
Oddity 
Gift for: scientists, fidgeters, coworkers
Shouldn't exist · No. 02
Jellyfish Lamp
A tabletop tank of imitation jellyfish that drift on a quiet current, with no animals to feed.
Oddity 
Gift for: partners, designers, desk dwellers
Has everything · No. 04
Ferrofluid Sculpture
A sealed bottle of black magnetic liquid that spikes into a tiny landscape when a magnet comes near.
Oddity
Gift for: engineers, scientists, fidgeters
Shouldn't exist · No. 03
Glass Mushroom Lamp
A hand-blown glass toadstool with wavy stripes, dimmable, that glows like something found on a night walk.
Oddity
Gift for: designers, partners, hosts
Has everything · No. 06
Perplexus Original
A clear sphere with a three-dimensional maze inside. You tilt the whole world to move one small ball.
Oddity
Gift for: fidgeters, coworkers, travelers
Has everything · No. 05
S. (Ship of Theseus)
A novel printed as a library book, stuffed with margin notes, letters, and loose inserts you have to keep in order.
Oddity
Gift for: readers, writers, partners
Under $25 · No. 12
Nature Kaleidoscope Kit
A kit for building a kaleidoscope, then filling the end with dried flowers, stones, and whatever small thing you add later.
Oddity
Gift for: makers, designers, fidgeters
From the future · No. 14
Levitating Planter
A small pot that hangs in midair and turns, meant for an air plant because you cannot really water a floating pot.
Oddity
Gift for: gardeners, designers, partners
From the future · No. 19
Crookes Radiometer
A glass bulb with black-and-white vanes that spin when light hits them, and sit still in the dark. No battery, no motor.
Oddity
Gift for: scientists, desk dwellers, coworkers
Shouldn't exist · No. 20
Mirascope
Two parabolic mirrors that project a small object so it appears to sit on top of the dish. A finger goes through it.
Oddity
Gift for: fidgeters, designers, coworkers
Never search for · No. 21
Codex Seraphinianus
Luigi Serafini's encyclopedia of an invented world, written in a script nobody can read, with diagrams of creatures that do not exist.
Oddity
Gift for: designers, writers, readers
Shouldn't exist · No. 23
Pythagorean Cup
A ceramic cup with a hidden siphon. Fill it to the line and it is a cup. Fill it past the line and the whole drink runs out the bottom.
Oddity
Gift for: hosts, scientists, partners
Surprisingly useful · No. 24
Clocky
An alarm clock on wheels. When it goes off, it rolls off the nightstand and hides, so turning it off means getting out of bed.
Oddity
Gift for: partners, coworkers, fidgeters
From the future · No. 25
Tensegrity Stand
A small wooden platform that hangs in the air on chains, tense enough to hold a plant, with no post underneath it.
Oddity
Gift for: designers, desk dwellers, gardeners
Has everything · No. 26
Marble Night City
A wooden machine you build from 294 pieces, then crank. Ten steel marbles climb the gears and race a night-city track.
Oddity
Gift for: makers, engineers, fidgeters
Has everything · No. 27
Laser Chess
A two-player chess set in which the pieces are mirrors. You win by bouncing a laser onto the other player's king.
Oddity
Gift for: scientists, coworkers, fidgeters
Under $25 · No. 29
Color-Mixing Cube
A two-inch acrylic cube with cyan, magenta, and yellow faces. Turn it and the overlaps become red, green, and blue.
Oddity
Gift for: designers, scientists, desk dwellers
Never search for · No. 30
Tim Bird
A rubber-band ornithopter with a 15.5-inch wingspan. Wind it, toss it, and the wings flap hard enough to fly.
Oddity
Gift for: makers, scientists, partners
Never search for · No. 37
Otamatone
A Japanese note-shaped instrument. Slide a finger along the stem for the pitch, and squeeze the mouth for the wobble.
Oddity
Gift for: partners, makers, coworkers
Shouldn't exist · No. 38
Wandini Glow.0
A rechargeable LED wand on a thin black string. Loop it on a finger and the light seems to float while the hand draws.
Oddity
Gift for: partners, designers, fidgeters
Never search for · No. 36
Spinballs
Two soft lighted poi, with a flame look, a fade, and a strobe among the modes, for learning to spin light in circles.
Oddity
Gift for: fidgeters, partners, travelers