Sometimes there are things on the internet that I can’t help but get deeply and unnecessarily invested in. Remember that Dear David creepypasta a writer “documented” across months of tweets in 2017? I was obsessed. This week it’s a woman who accidentally got two bowls stuck together while washing the dishes and had to spend days trying to get them apart again. Days.

Come with me on this journey because it is a doozy and a half.

Earlier this week Chi Nguyễn realised she accidentally got a small ceramic bowl wedged inside a larger ceramic bowl while doing the dishes. Before she realised what had happened the bowls had cooled enough to form a vacuum seal which firmly locked them in place.

Twitter, I need your help. I stacked a ceramic bowl into another one while doing dishes and now they are stuck. How do you remove the smaller bowl without breaking both of them?

Why am I so invested? I’ve tried to fix this for 2 days, and I cannot give up now. pic.twitter.com/ONfuw7L9dH

— Chi Nguyễn (@whatchidid) June 6, 2022

The bowls had been welded together for two days when she turned to Twitter for help and she had already tried a few things to get them apart again.

Chi said she had attempted to separate the bowls by putting them back in warm soapy water, warming the outer bowl up with hot water while keeping the inner bowl cool with water and ice, chucking them in the microwave and putting oil and WD-40 on the edges.

Hell, she had even aggressively shook them to see if that would work. But nothing did.

Update: Bowls are currently in the freezer and thanks to the replies, I will not be running hot water on them!

— Chi Nguyễn (@whatchidid) June 6, 2022

A few people offered suggestions and sometime later Chi returned to Twitter to confirm those ideas hadn’t worked, either. No amount of passive-aggressive comments, freezing, rubber mallet hammering or light tapping on a table could get these two pieces of stubborn crockery separated.

An hour later and Chi’s bowls were still stuck together like a pair of good waffles. She had tried to break the seal between the bowls with cards, toothpicks and straws. She even fully submerged them in water to see if there was a way air pressure could release the bowls from the vice-like grip.

Update: Still stuck – upside down, twisting inner bowl, tapping outer bowl – upside down, submerged under water, tapping outer bowl with mallet – hot out of the dishwasher – googled autoclave

Let us all rest tonight knowing these bowls will still be together tomorrow.

— Chi Nguyễn (@whatchidid) June 7, 2022

At this point, I was pretty much refreshing Chi’s timeline regularly. I wanted, no, I needed to know how these damn bowls were going to get their freedom. Were they destined to exist like an accidental double-walled dish? Would these two ceramic pals ever break from this long, annoying embrace?

The following day Chi was at it again. She tried leaving them submerged overnight with detergent around the edges. Nothing. She used thread, paper and knives to break the seal. Nada.

Update: – electric toothbrush – mini plunger (no go, circumference is bigger than smaller bowl) – compassionately, but firmly threw bowls onto pillow – no easy way to say this: smaller bowl has a chip now

Still stuck. pic.twitter.com/5diGPZvhTy

— Chi Nguyễn (@whatchidid) June 8, 2022

She even invested in a mini plunger to see if that would get these noodle carriers undid. Still nothing. Instead, she wound up with the first piece of collateral damage — the small bowl got chipped.

On Thursday morning (some 20 hours after the chipping incident) Chi and her bowls found relief. They came unstuck.

Chi did a myriad of things in the last hours of the Bowl Saga. She left them upside down on a towel for a while, let her toddler have a go (who knows maybe their childish innocence would be respected by the crockery?), used a little suction cup, banged them on the carpet and gave them a pep talk to sort themselves out.

And then, like some dark force suddenly gave in, the bowls came apart. The greatest conscious uncoupling since Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. I nearly dropped my phone in sheer excitement.

Last 20 hours: – upside down, on a towel, undisturbed – gave to toddler (clear mandate that bowls must stay together) – suction cup – small bowl asks to not give up on it now – banged on carpet

UNSTUCK!!!! pic.twitter.com/zllvidh07H

— Chi Nguyễn (@whatchidid) June 8, 2022

Let this be a lesson to us all: bowls hold ancient, dark energy that absolutely will result in them welding together with the strength of two powerful magnets if you’re not careful.

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