They always escape in the wash...

Day 170.5

A sock puppet is a puppet made from a sock (or similar garment). When the manipulator fits a hand into the closed end of the sock, the puppet can be seemingly made to "talk". The puppet's mouth is formed by the region between the sock's heel and toe, with the puppeteer's thumb forming a jaw. At a minimum the shape of the hand will instantly form the shape of a mouth, but sometimes the mouth is padded by putting in a fairly hard piece of felt (often with a tongue glued inside).

The sock is stretched out fully so that it is long enough to cover the puppeteer's wrist and part of the arm. Often, but not always, the puppeteer will hide behind a stand and raise up his or her hand above the stand so that only the puppet is visible. Many sock puppeteers, however, stand in full view along with their puppets and will hold conversations with their own sock puppets, using ventriloquism.

Sock puppets are often used for the education and entertainment of children. 

All the kings horsemen and all the kings men...

Day 170

An orthopedic cast, body cast or surgical cast, is a shell, frequently made from plaster, encasing a limb (or, in some cases, large portions of the body) to hold a broken bone (or shell) in place until healing is confirmed. It is similar in function to a splint.

Body casts, which cover the trunk of the body, and in some cases the neck up to or including the head or one or more limbs, are rarely used today, and are most commonly used in the cases of small children, who cannot be trusted to comply with a brace, or in cases of radical surgery to repair an injury or other defect. A body cast which encases the trunk (with "straps" over the shoulders) is usually referred to as a body jacket. These are often very uncomfortable.