Operating on the theory that the collective wisdom of the Chipboard can figure anything out, I ask you to tell me what these are used for. I don't know the answer myself, so your answer must be something I can verify or that seems plausible.

If you convince me that your answer is correct I'll send you a $5 chip of my choice.

Here's how I came to have these: I recently ordered a case of wine (12 different individually selected bottles) from a well-known online wine vendor. When I received the wine, there was a sealed plastic bag containing 10 wooden tubes as seen in the picture. Thinking I was dumb for not knowing what to do with them, I contacted the wine vendor. They asked everybody in the company, including the guys in their shipping warehouse and nobody has a clue what they are or where they came from.

As you can see, they're a little over 3-1/2 inches long, are hollow and have a wooden cap that fits perfectly on the end. The opening looks like it's slightly smaller than a cigarette and the tube is hollow almost all the way to the end. The end and the cap both have small nubs on the center like they were turned on a lathe (or a machine that works like a lathe) and then cut off.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, start your guessing!