that's going to be a specialized repair

[cellio]

When I did laundry a few days ago, I found a sock in the dryer that belongs to neither of us. I'm going to assume that no one broke into our house to do laundry, so that points strongly to another theory.

For the longest time I assumed that dryers ate socks (and sometimes expelled them as lint). But no! My dryer is apparently a sock transporter! But if so, the balance is way out of whack; I've lost many socks, but I believe this is the first deposit.

What kind of a repairman fixes that?

Comments

[grouchyoldcoot.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is a known phenomenon well modeled by my theory of quantum undodynamics. In some other drier of approximately the same shape and angular velocity a pair of underpants made an undospin transition to the sock state, giving it enough energy to tunnel to your drier. The sock tunneling rate depends on several drier-specific parameters and the Sock Tunneling Constant, a fundamental constant of the theory. You see it most often in laundromats, where you get a lot of driers of identical design lined up in a row to make a periodic square well potential.

[cellio]

Is there any conclusive research yet on factors most likely to cause underpants to make this transition? (Boxers vs briefs? Color? Age?) Is there corelation between those factors and the quality of socks that result? Or, put another way, can a sufficiently-desperate person take his worn-out undies to a laundromat to make new socks?

[grouchyoldcoot.livejournal.com]

So far as I know, there is no known way to influence the detailed state of the socks, even at the level of plain vs. argyle. This is an active area of research at several high energy washing facilities at CERW in Europe.

[almondroy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you need a new flux capacitor.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the Socks-to-Lint theory works both ways, and the sock gets assembled with specs based on the types and kinds of lint available.

[cellio]

This sock was gray, which I guess makes sense as an average.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but this post already has awesome comments.

Obviously...

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

A quantum mechanic.

Re: Obviously...

[grouchyoldcoot.livejournal.com]

Well, clearly.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

I suspect that Heisenberg compensators are somehow involved.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Jules Feiffer has already documented this phenomenon (http://www.shadowgallery.co.uk/commonplace/quotesm.html#socks): "Quit trifling with the laws of nature and bring the machine more socks."

[siderea]

Thank you for reminding me of that!

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I'm going to assume that no one broke into our house to do laundry

That might be a poor assumption.

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

What does it look like? Maybe it's one of mine.

[cellio]

Gray, thick, fuzzy... and about a size 15. Maybe not, but it sure looked big from the size-8 perspective.

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

Although don't discount the burglar theory immediately.

Some guy broke into my friend's house about 12 years ago while she was at work, and did a load of laundry and stole a pair of her boyfriend's shoes, leaving his shoes behind. She knows he did laundry because he left a pair of underwear in the dryer and spilled laundry soap on the top of the washer.

Also ate some food out of the refridgerator. But only stole the one pair of shoes.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was the hero of an action movie, on the run from the bad guys, and the shoes he had were pinching him?

The Great Sock Artiste

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

Another possibility: perhaps your dryer is possessed by the spirit of a sock artist who disassembles other socks, taking only the choicest bits of lint in an effort to create the occasional sock that is more in line with this spirit's artistic vision. Then, when you least expect it, in an avant-garde sleight-of-hand, your everyday functional socks are replaced with something a bit more abstract, causing you to contemplate the nature of socks and their intersection with art and form vis-a-vis the everyday act of drying your laundry.