Bob Conant's delightful posting, "Humorous Questions for the Organ
Grinder" reminded me of Larry Givens' "Whimsy", beginning on page
735 of Dave Bowers' Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments.

Like Larry, back when I had a small collection of working reproducing
pianos and nickelodeons to entertain visitors, I had to endure the task
of answering questions that appeared more often stupid than amusing.
Here are my top five FAQs:

1. "Did you electrify it yourself?"  "No, it was made that way."
   "Really? I didn't think they had electricity back then."

2. "How much is it worth?"  "How much am I offered?"  "I couldn't
    make you an offer. My wife would never let me have one of these."

3. "Can you still get the rollers (or tapes)?"

4. "What would it sound like if you played them all at once?"
   "It would sound like dead silence, because trying that would
    trip a circuit breaker."

5. "Who's going to get all this stuff when you die?"

And, once someone asked concerning the Wurlitzer LX orchestrion,
"What is the revolving cupcake for?"

However, the question often asked of Bob, "Can you turn the volume
down," is most appropriate.  Generally, visitors like to talk a mile
a minute while the music is playing, in which case any instrument
played at normal volume is an annoyance.

Jeffrey Wood