okay so this is a DIFFERENT gadget, I promise, not the walkman, I have Diversified my obsessions today — found a little brass orrery in a junk bin behind one of the shops down by the canal, half the arms bent, one planet missing entirely (RIP whoever you were, little guy), and I spent like three hours tonight with a jeweler's loupe and a pair of tweezers just coaxing the gears back into alignment. And okay, I know, I KNOW, it's not exactly practical, nobody NEEDS a hand-cranked model of a solar system sitting on their desk, but there's something almost unbearably satisfying about turning the little handle and watching all the planets tick along at their own separate speeds. Mercury's zipping around like it's late for something and Saturn's just. Barely moving. Living its best slow life. It's basically a whole tiny universe you can hold in one hand, and I don't know, I used to have this cheap plastic version as a kid that I got from a cereal box promo of all things, and it broke within like a week because I kept cranking it too hard trying to make Mars go faster (I had priorities, okay, Mars looked cool), and I think some tiny part of nine-year-old me has been waiting decades to fix that. Anyway. It works now. Mostly. Neptune's arm still squeaks a little but I've decided that's charm, not a flaw. Anybody else got a soft spot for stuff that models the impossibly big using stuff you can hold in your hand? Feels like it should be a whole category of nerd.