Winner! Round 6 - Grand Prize and Short List

Round 6 of Guess What Is in the Boxes - REVEALED:

HOT 1996 Olympic Summer Games THERMOMETER TRADING PINS (TM) Trading Pin

The illustration thermometer registers just over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, about 42 Celsius. The pin has a thermometer and an illustration that might be a melting ice cube in a pool of water. I compared the temperature on the THERMOMETER TRADING PINS trading pin thermometer with my home thermostat and it seemed pretty accurate, so there's that. The copy on the back promises "Collectible Thermometer Trading Pins (TM) . . . A HOT way to support the 1996 Olympic Summer Games."

I do not think that "HOT" means "stolen" in this context. I purchased the item as a good faith purchaser for value.

Grand Prize

WINNER: @carterbob2: it mirrors the contents of dreams that never achieved escape velocity, and crashed back to Earth.
- This guess wins the Grand Prize because of the double beauty of it. The Olympics themselves are always filled with dreams that never achieve escape velocity and crash back to earth. Sometimes actual people crash. This is especially true of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Atlanta’s dream of achieving its long-sought status as an International city crashed to earth. No one was happy with my home city, clearly in over its head and out of control with the organization and the excessive merchandizing. There was even a terrorist bombing. It was all a dream that crashed back to earth.

@BrianPike: The Ineffable, Rendered Universally Accessible. [That was guess 1 of 2]
- There is a strong argument for this guess, provided one uses “Universal” in the sense of “World wide,” but not enough to move it to the top slot.

@atomicfez: } no more refraint: it's a block of very thin, stiff cheese, reinforced with metal rulers (no cork backing)
- This guess was in the running for the top slot, but it was edged out by a couple of later guesses. The collectible pin is in itself a piece of very thin, stiff cheesiness, and one could consider the thermometer a metal ruler of sorts. Also, I was very proud of saying "refraint" the other day, and was glad to see it in the guess.

@ContemptSlots: A composite creation conceived for containing, constraining, and collecting.
- A good guess – the word “collecting” really caught my eye, and I like the idea of “constraining” in connection with a thermometer. But not enough to take the prize.

@michael_elliott: it's one of those draw-beards-and-moustaches-on-people-with-iron-filings-and-a-magnet thingies.
- I really like this guess, and if it weren’t for the winning guess I would be in a real bind here. This pin is simply shaped like those thingies, and the pictures of suggested drawings are of stereotyped individuals that make a kind of parade of nations.

@jonathaneunice: It's something cheap and aimless, but that will nonetheless inspire an amusing pastime.
- Cheap and aimless – check! You would need to reverse the second part, however – this pin was inspired by an amusing pastime.

@jonathaneunice: It's something that summons, or at least desires, the rain.
- This guess was a very strong contender for the top slot. The Pin is HOT, and tells the temperature. It must need the rain. Atlanta certainly needs the rain, now and forever, future and past. Especially in August. I remember the summer of the Olympics. Some more rain would have been nice.