All's well that ends well?

December 2, 2009 11:56 AM

Many ask.metafilter questions don't have an "end" to the story. Which questions are you most curious about how they ended?
posted by bigmusic to MetaFilter-Related at 11:56 AM (68 comments total)

This one.
posted by logicpunk at 12:03 PM on December 2, 2009 [6 favorites]

I was reminded of this question about whether to buy a houseboat some weeks ago, and almost mailed the poster to ask if they'd done it and, if so, how it turned out.
posted by not that girl at 12:14 PM on December 2, 2009

What Greg Nog said. although I'd still like to know what that song on the mix tape Tim gave me in college was
posted by crush-onastick at 12:20 PM on December 2, 2009

fr0zen and xteraco!
posted by jokeefe at 12:20 PM on December 2, 2009 [20 favorites]

What did brent name his plant?
posted by Plutor at 12:21 PM on December 2, 2009

Not one in particular . . . but all the naming threads - baby naming, pet naming.
posted by Sassyfras at 12:24 PM on December 2, 2009

This one.

And this one.

There are a bunch of other anonymous ones out there, too --- usually the ones involving serious relationship difficulty or feelings of being in personal danger. But the two above stick in my mind the most for some reason. Probably because I'm still a relatively new parent.
posted by zizzle at 12:26 PM on December 2, 2009

I'd really like a follow-up with the so-called happy ending thread that was recently highlighted on MetaTalk. Did it really end happily? I suppose the situation is ongoing (but hopefully moving in a good direction).
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:27 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Here are a whole bunch of 'em from 2007. Good idea to update it.
posted by Jaltcoh at 12:31 PM on December 2, 2009

I always wondered who the celebrity extramarital affair was but I don't expect to ever find out as that's kind of the point.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:33 PM on December 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

I am disappointed…

I have always wondered how DID these people got their cats wedged into their scanners
posted by ShawnString at 12:34 PM on December 2, 2009

TATERS, goddamnit. I want to know what the fuck hardcore and softcore taters are.
posted by little e at 12:34 PM on December 2, 2009 [63 favorites]

and apparently I aint got no good grammer
posted by ShawnString at 12:35 PM on December 2, 2009

I was going to say this one from June -- about a possible scam involving gemstones and a Nigerian -- but I just looked at it and it looks like it got an update a couple of weeks ago. Not quite a happy ending, but still.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 12:38 PM on December 2, 2009

Help me crash a party like James Bond.
posted by Kattullus at 12:51 PM on December 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

My boss has bet me that I can't drink a gallon of milk in one hour. Do I have a chance? How?

I mean he's still around, so I guess he survived, but I want the gory details about awful it was.
posted by juv3nal at 12:51 PM on December 2, 2009

Kattullus, he didn't end up doing it.
posted by yhbc at 12:55 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

One from earlier this year where a pregnant woman was stuck with her abusive/mentally ill/alcoholic/violent brother, and none of her family would help ease the situation. Her partner offered to help her relocate far away, for the good of their child. I actually think about it often, and I hope she took her partner's offer.
posted by Sova at 1:06 PM on December 2, 2009 [4 favorites]

I'm still disappointed by the lack of photos to go with the signs for mocking kitty thread.

Seriously, who promises cute animal pictures and then doesn't come through? That's just indefensible. The internet is here to entertain me dammit!
posted by 1f2frfbf at 1:08 PM on December 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Yeah, many of the crazy fucked up relationship ones I wonder about, but for some reason the only specific question I think of from time to time had to do with a woman thinking that someone was sneaking into her apartment and moving objects around while she was gone. Did she ever find out if someone was coming in (landlord, former tenant), or was it just bad memory and confirmation bias? Inquiring minds...
posted by JenMarie at 1:13 PM on December 2, 2009

I was wondering what ended up happening with this one the other day -- there are a ton of others but none of them spring to mind immediately.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 1:21 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

This one. I'm worried about the poster and the dog. I did appreciate Jessamyn's update on the thread, but no idea what has happened since then.
posted by bearwife at 1:40 PM on December 2, 2009

Please help me keep my girlfriend safe from a stalker

The Date From Hell (text NSFW)

Thai to English Translation Sought for Butthole Surfers Fan

The-Crazy-World-of-Arthur-Brown-Redux
posted by selton at 1:43 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

ohh! i think about the update thread from 2007 all the time and kept hoping there would be a new one, but not enough to make it and risk being shat upon by the "this thread doesn't meet my personal standards" group.
posted by nadawi at 1:44 PM on December 2, 2009

Did you go with Vega or.. what?

And seconding the Date from Hell. Did that guy ever end up in a serious relationship? Join a monastery?
posted by giraffe at 1:51 PM on December 2, 2009

TATERS, goddamnit. I want to know what the fuck hardcore and softcore taters are.

Did anyone ever ask Dan Savage about this? If not we should write a letter to him, something like this:

Dear Savage Love,
Several friends and I have heard the term "hardcore taters" and "softcore taters" in reference to explicit gay porn sites. We've Googled and searched and asked around, but can find no definitive answer to the question. Any ideas?
-Tater Wonderer
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:00 PM on December 2, 2009 [7 favorites]

I wonder about the infamous anonymous Is My Husband Trying to Kill Me? question. Was it a troll? Did she seek psychiatric care? Was he really trying to kill her?
posted by peep at 2:05 PM on December 2, 2009 [10 favorites]

I just want know what this young adult alt-future novel is!
posted by barnacles at 2:06 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Since Milk Dude explicitly asked if he should mention the results of his challenge in the thread or in MeTa, I can only assume that his lack of follow-up means that the outcome was too embarrassing to mention even under interweb pseudonymity.
posted by CKmtl at 2:18 PM on December 2, 2009

Peep: there was a long metatalk thread about that question.

Dersins wrote in it:

Look, I haven't read this whole thread, but I just wanted to say that the question isn't someone working out the details of a book they're writing, it's someone stealing the details frm a book written 30-some years ago-- John D. McDonald's "Turqoise Lament." It's been years since i read the book, so my recollections are a bit imprcise, but at least one (and possibly all three) of the murder attempts in the book are effectively identical to the question, as is the fact that Pidge (in the book) is an orphaned woman of only average attractiveness recently married to a handsome guy whom everybody loves. People think Pidge is crazy for believeing her husband is trying to kill her-- they live such a wonderful life of sailing in tropical seas, hiking along jungle cliffs-- seriously it's the exact same plot.
posted by dersins at 4:44 PM on January 18 [has favorites +] [!]

posted by selton at 2:19 PM on December 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'm with peep. I remember seeing the comment you quoted, selton, but I am still pretty convinced that the question was sincere.

There's no hope for me on this internet, I know.
posted by juliplease at 2:24 PM on December 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

Yes, I had just been re-reading that MeTa, and though there was plenty of speculation there seemed to be no clear conclusion that it was a bad faith troll by any means, with the mods explicitly believing it to be sincere.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:28 PM on December 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'm still annoyed that I can't identify the (probably not) Kids In The Hall sketch mentioned in this AskMe.
posted by burnmp3s at 2:51 PM on December 2, 2009

Re: this thread — xteraco, at least, still seems to be pursuing his programming career. (Previous examples 1, 2; see the comments)
posted by teraflop at 2:58 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Was it really OK to eat that?
posted by Joe Beese at 3:07 PM on December 2, 2009 [7 favorites]

Also, that one with the annoying whistle-blowing lady in the dog park. The thread got out of hand with some pretty crazy revenge plots and whatnot, but I always wondered whatever came of the situation...
posted by JenMarie at 3:19 PM on December 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

I still really really really want to know what the hell the "Chicken Soup cheese" was, and if it made a horrifying sandwich.
posted by majick at 3:22 PM on December 2, 2009

Train car house land yacht.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:35 PM on December 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Chicken Soup Cheese is Schmaltz. And it makes a perfectly good sandwich.
posted by Toekneesan at 3:46 PM on December 2, 2009

I'm almost positive that the product described as a cheese, that came in a cheese product gift basket, and was being used for grilled cheese sandwiches as part of a grilled cheese sandwich party was not schmaltz (which I've never heard of referred to that way, how odd!). Schmaltz, by the way, is awesome to fry your polenta in.
posted by majick at 3:52 PM on December 2, 2009

I often wonder about the poster who's girlfriend had an unfortunate run-in with a certain viral website. Are they still together, was the "update" true or not, etc.
posted by biochemist at 3:59 PM on December 2, 2009

"What to expect out a short stay in county?" The poster promised to check back in with an update, but never did and then the thread closed.
posted by donpedro at 4:26 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I still don't know what this rusty nautical item is, and it bugs the SHIT out of me. :)

I checked back steadily for a year to see if it ever got figured out. Sadly, it didn't. :(
posted by Malor at 4:54 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I still want to know more about this rebus one. Not just the rebus translation, but where these pages are from.

(While I was trying to relocate that post, I found another not quite solved rebus.)

I have a thing for the rebi.
posted by NikitaNikita at 5:10 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

There was one a couple of years back where somebody was going to hang lights in a pine forest for a nighttime photography project.
I've always wondered how that turned out.
posted by Flashman at 5:24 PM on December 2, 2009

Oh, my. Unresolved AskMes are painful things indeed.

What if the followup form letters from "Matt" was repeated three times, including one specifically asking people to post a "closure" note? I love when people do that, but it seems rare.
posted by rokusan at 5:25 PM on December 2, 2009

Sometimes I wonder about the identity of the creepy/sad old lady who kept calling one_bean. Given that the thread's still open and that one_bean did come back for a couple of updates, I'm assuming s/he hasn't gotten to the bottom of the mystery either.

I also wonder about this one--it was fairly recent, but it was just such a sad situation for the OP's wife. I really hope she is out of that awful household.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 5:37 PM on December 2, 2009

Ahh... that taters thread was the BEST. I don't know why it still gives me the goddamn giggles. Such a serious thread completely DERAILED by taters.

Just remember to sign your Savage Love email with an appropriate acronym.

Where Taters From?
Talking Of Taters
Taters Are Indeterminate Net Talk

Okay, that last one was bad but you see where I'm going with this.
posted by amanda at 5:41 PM on December 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

Oh, man, I'm sure I have tons, but two that I remember off the top of my head:

My (ex?) girlfriend has taken our six day old child to her parents house and is barricading herself there.

GF is dead-set on moving from Brooklyn to Cairo, Egypt, for at least a year.

And I'm still more bothered than I'd like to admit that I never got an answer to my question in this thread.
posted by anderjen at 5:50 PM on December 2, 2009

Anyone voting for anything other than taters needs to seek psychological help.
posted by DU at 5:53 PM on December 2, 2009

You know, every once in a while I see a reference to "taters/tators" on Metafilter and think, hmm, I must have missed something at some point--I should look that up. But then I forget about it.

Well, thanks to this thread, I finally went and read the original AskMe and the MeTa threads and IT WAS SO WORTH IT.

And now I want to know what the hell taters are.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:10 PM on December 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I sometimes wonder if ladypants ever built her monkey with four asses.
posted by arachnid at 6:25 PM on December 2, 2009

On more than one occasion I've contacted a member to find out what happened.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:36 PM on December 2, 2009

The two I wonder about:

The dudes with the copious pounds of chocolate chips.

The dude with the secret 1/2 height batcave under his newly bought house/office.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:15 AM on December 3, 2009

We adore our cat and we're good parents to her. Do we have to give her up?

I'm so curious as to what ended up happening to Yuki/Cat!
posted by KatlaDragon at 2:11 AM on December 3, 2009

Every post where the person is told to see a therapist...and whether they ever did see a therapist, and whether their problems got resolved whether or not they did.

I'd like to know what happened to anybody who was in a bad spot at the time of writing a post (usually a human relations-type post) has gotten out of that bad spot, and what happened to them that allowed them to do so.
posted by thisperon at 2:15 AM on December 3, 2009

I am still worried about this post Sova mentioned above about the pregnant woman with the disabled mother and crazy brother "Frank" who won't leave the house: Can't Talk To A Psycho Like A Normal Human Being. Surely she's had her baby by now.

And, echoing others, I'd like to know what happened to the man whose girlfriend took their baby, and the couple who "oopsed".
posted by purpleclover at 2:48 AM on December 3, 2009

Did this guy ever take up this guy's offer of coffee?
posted by the.carol.baxter.experience at 3:39 AM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

Mrs Brownsville. Is she OK? I hope she survived the goat bloat.
posted by t0astie at 5:26 AM on December 3, 2009

And seconding the Date from Hell. Did that guy ever end up in a serious relationship? Join a monastery?

I wish I could give you a fabulously interesting update on this, but sadly there is no socko ending. Mary is still unmarried. Tom is still unmarried. They still work together. Mary still thinks of Tom as her friend but, as far as I know, never went to his house again for dinner.

I did go back and read the thread and laugh like a hyena, though. There were some pretty hilarious reactions in the comments.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:22 AM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'd like to hear about anyone who asked "Should I start a business" or "How do I form a startup" or "How do I become a solo consultant" about how it turned out.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 11:26 AM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

I was curious about goatbloat also. I emailed Benzle a while ago, and I'm sorry to relate that Mrs. Brownsville didn't make it. She died before they were able to get to the vet. :(
posted by greekphilosophy at 11:54 AM on December 3, 2009

I'd love to find out whether anything turned up on why flapjax at midnite's friend's car was stolen and then returned within minutes. It's a really strange story and I'd love to know what happened.
posted by Kattullus at 11:59 AM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Is an ebay fraud seller free? Is airnxtz still out there scamming people?
posted by agropyron at 1:18 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

agropyron, if so, he's no longer using that name.

This thread has made my day! Needed the chuckles before work.
posted by MuChao at 2:11 PM on December 3, 2009

The Can't Talk to a Psycho Like a Normal Human Being link that purpleclover linked above is strikingly similar to this one. I've wondered if they were written by the same person and what happened.
posted by onhazier at 11:36 AM on December 4, 2009

I've wondered about this anonymous whose boyfriend was HIV-positive and lied about it.

I stumbled across the thread a few months ago, and have thought of it several times since then. Hope you're doing well, anonymous!
posted by Georgina at 5:38 AM on December 8, 2009

I've wondered about the anonymous who met up with his old HS sweetheart and felt that there was a second chance at true love, and wanted to know how to approach her at the holidays.
posted by pineapple at 1:07 PM on December 14, 2009