The other day I engaged in a conversation with a friend about the typical ponderables. You know, things like: the locations of things lost such as socks that disappear from the dryer, favorite pens that disappear from the place you know you put them. He had nerve enough to add the last of the cookies that you are certain you left in the cupboard. (I told him I wasn't at all sure that cookies count.) My personal favorite, however, are reading glasses that just walk away.

I know this from personal experience. I put a pair of reading glasses, in their case, in my purse. By the time I reached my home, the glasses had disappeared. No, I made no stops between locations. They were gone and, even after searching my car, I didn’t find them. I am now in the process of replacing them.

I would have given it no thought whatsoever, until I heard about an earring. A very special earring. I saw the headline Marlene Dietrich's lost earring finally found after 73 years! Truthfully, I gave it little thought. Oh, I guess I was surprised to learn that she enjoyed amusement parks. But that was about it.

Anyway, I started thinking about a series of conversations I have had a co-worker (not that one, another one) who regularly talks to me about String Theory. I can spell it and I have a very general idea of the concepts. My fascination was peaked when he mention that this theory supports at least 11 dimensions. I decided that it was fun to listen to but very difficult to prove.

Now, I think there is proof. Things have begun slipping through from one, or more, of those dimensions. Yes, I know how this sounds, but if there had been only one of these occurrences I don’t think I would have given it any thought, but a day or two later I was reading a two-day old newspaper and discovered that the earring was only the latest items to suddenly reappear.

Still, I chose to give it little thought until today’s news. I just discovered that there has been another instance:

                Man gets postcard postmarked in 1949

The card was addressed to Mrs. M.K. Hethington on King Street. A one-cent stamp was on the back, along with a postmark from Hendersonville, N.C., dated June 28, 1949.

 This is fascinating for many reasons, not the least of which is that the recipient, a retired police chief, with the same last name, had to research his family history to discover that the original recipient was his great-aunt who died in 1972. He received the card in a plain white envelope with no message or return address.

After that I started thinking. I know, it’s a little dangerous at times, but not this time. At least, I don’t think so.

Anyway, there have been several of these ‘returns’ recently. Among the most reported are:

Man's Wallet Returned After 62 Years – this was lost during WWII.

Ring finds its owner after 27 years in the Gulf of Mexico – this was a graduation ring that her father bought for her when she was 17, in 1978.

Ok, the last one was returned a little early, in the scheme of things, but I wonder if that could have anything to do with the fact that the ring was lost in the water. After all, the other items were lost on land. I admit I don’t really know where the postcard was lost, but because it fits the time cycle, I suspect it wasn’t dropped in the water.

I have decided that it will eventually be possible to test this theory. Four days ago, I read the following:

Lost: One big snake. Really big. The Blalock family on Truman Street behind Thomson First Presbyterian Church is looking for Jake the Snake - a six-foot-long Columbian Red-Tailed boa constrictor that has been the family pet for more than 10 years.

So, if my theory is correct Jake should eventually reappear. Here’s the problem: all of the other examples were inanimate objects. Jake on the other hand, although cold blooded, is still defined as animate. So, when he slips away there is no measure that can be used to determine his return.

There have been other notable localized disappearances of animate. For instance: between 1920 and 1950, the town of Bennington, Vermont has been the site of serveral comletely unexplained disappearances:

On December 1, 1949, a Mr. Tetford vanished from a crowded bus..

On December 1, 1946, an 18-year-old student named Paula Welden vanished while taking a walk.
In mid-October, 1950, 8-year old Paul Jepson disappeared from a farm.

Of course, there is some validation for questions regarding the return of animate objects. After all, Judge Crater disappeared in 1930, and he hasn’t reappeared yet. Nor has Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared in 1913. I admit that this one might not really count because Bierce was on his way to join Pancho Villa. A gravestone was placed in a cemetery in Sierra Mojada in 1914, but there is no body beneath the stone.

I guess we have a number of years to test the theory. It should be interesting to learn what happens with the more learned of our species takes a look at this idea. Of course, Jake may have to get in line behind Judge Crater and Ambrose Bierce.