A large hourglass is removed from the box and is set upright on the parlour table. On top is a handle that controls a replica human hand inside the glass.

The game starts when the glass is turned over, and you furiously plunge the lever, grasping at grains of sand as they slip through the clumsy replica hand.

A timer in the narrow passage records how futile your last attempt was. Turn it over, and try again?
-- rcarty, Nov 16 2013

Perfect.
-- calum, Nov 16 2013


Imperfect. Just jam the replica's fist in the hole. Sorted.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 16 2013


Maybe you would prefer the wanking version where you have to pump the handle as long as possible before everything sprays out.
-- rcarty, Nov 16 2013


No, but thank you for the offer. It's a charming thought.

I'm slightly confused, though, as to the point of this. If you spend all your time playing with this hourglass and contemplating your wasted life, as opposed to doing something useful like making a cup of tea or inventing a teleporter, you are in fact wasting your life. Hence, ergo non hepit ad scrotum, this is a sort of self-gazing navel.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 16 2013


You mean like a parascope that looks down into your bellybutton?
-- rcarty, Nov 16 2013


No, a parascope would be for watching parachutes.

You were probably thinking of a kaleidoscope, just now.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 16 2013


You assume he does not have parachutes in his bellybutton.
-- pocmloc, Nov 16 2013


Oops, periscope, and naval and navel to be sure.
-- rcarty, Nov 16 2013



random, halfbakery