Today is the 180th birthday of one Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. Did you know he studied and taught at Oxford? Well, he spent so much time visiting the Museum of Natural History there that one of their objects may have influenced a character in Alice’s Adventures in...
Some vintage photographs of Hanukkah displays from the collection of the Center for Jewish History in New York City.
In 1912 dime museums as well as arcades and theaters lined South State Street between Van Buren and Congress in the city of Chicago. These “first class” museums of curiosity, cheap theaters (with one claiming to feature “exotic” dancers from the Midway at Chicago’s World’s Fair), and penny arcades catered...
The House of Terror isn’t the name of the latest Kardashian clothing line at Sears, it’s a museum in Budapest, Hungary. Located in the former headquarters of the Hungarian secret police, the Terror Háza Múzeum contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th century Hungary. The building’s...
One more Beatles-related post and I’m done. I once lived 30 minutes away from Liverpool, so I spent a lot of time there. The city isn’t all things Beatles all the time, but sometimes it’s hard to avoid the touristy stuff. The Beatles Story Museum is one of those places....
Made the mistake of watching some Royal Wedding highlights on the television. The media kept making dress comparisons between Duchess Katie and Princess Grace. That made me think of Monaco and how I’ve never covered a museum from there before…until today. There’s literally thousands of dolls and automatons (meaning the...
I just discovered my future home: Twist, Germany. The origin of the town’s name has nothing to do with Chubby Checker’s famous dance. It’s due to Germany’s long disagreement with the Dutch over borders. “Twistrich” or “Twist Gebiet” in Low German means “disputed border”. Anyway, I think this is the...
When traveling to Tokyo you’ll probably be bringing a lot of excessive baggage (figuratively or literally) with you. What better way to rid yourself of it than with a trip to the Ace World Luggage Museum (after you needlessly purchase some self-help books of course). Owned by Japan’s Ace luggage...
I have never lived through a war zone, but I do appreciate a good joke. The Siege of Sarajevo has been memorialised in books, films, and numerous monuments, including a can of beef. During the nearly four-year siege of the Bosnian War, 160,000 tons of food and medicine were airlifted...
I’m still not quite sure what a bolo tie is or why it even exists, but I know lots of white dudes in cowboy hats like to wear them. Associated with western wear, the official necktie of New Mexico (it’s a law, folks!) basically consists of a piece of cord...
