What better time to visit the Pysanka Museum than on Easter Sunday. This is the only museum in the world dedicated to the Ukrainian Easter Egg. So appropriately enough it is located in Kolomyia, Ukraine. The museum’s exterior is shaped like an egg, while the inside of the dome resembles...
Steven Wright might be the name of a deadpan comedian, but please don’t confuse him with folk artist Stephen Wright (or English footballer Stephen Wright). Back in 1999, Stephen the artist was a stationary and textile designer. But one day after seeing Jarvis Cocker’s Journeys into the Outside, he decided...
One man owns over 50,000 vehicles. If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry, they’re only miniature Matchbox cars. Since its opening in 1992 in a former three-car garage, the Matchbox Road Museum in New Jersey is probably the world’s largest Matchbox collection. There’s more than just the traditional small...
Pretty much everyone knows about Santa Claus, Indiana. I once told you about the town’s post office and museum, which has been the official headquarters for all those “Dear Santa” letters since 1914. Forget the internet! People really, really, really want a Santa Claus, IN postmark. But did you know...
At Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, you will find the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. For nearly 40 years, Curator David Pilgrim has collected what he calls “racist garbage”. It is his belief that “forms of intolerance can be used to teach tolerance”. The museum displays a...
Tây Ninh, about 50 miles outside of Saigon, Vietnam is home to the headquarters of the Cao Dai religion, founded in 1926, which engages in prayer, ancestor worship, nonviolence and vegetarianism. Supposedly there are millions of Vietnamese adherents. Their temples are quite common in the country. But the Holy See...
In the middle of northern Illinois is the teeny town of Franklin Grove, home of Vietnam veteran Anthony Parks, who enjoys fixing old radios and record players. He enjoys it so much that he has his collection on display at Tony’s Old Ladies Vintage Radio Museum, which you admit is...
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. There’s a museum for just about everything. And I wasn’t lying. In Havre de Grace, Maryland there is a museum dedicated to “working decoys” (you know those things that sit in the water and attract ducks). Apparently duck hunting is popular...
Feb 5 in 1909 Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced the creation of Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic. And the world has never been the same since. The scientist was already a millionaire thanks to the sale of his photographic paper patent to Kodak, but phenol-formaldehyde (the not-so nice name...
I couldn’t let Neil Young‘s 70th birthday pass by without mentioning there is an actual museum dedicated to him. Neil might have sung about “a town in north Ontario” in the song “Helpless” but he spent part of his childhood in what is more like south-central Ontario, in the town...
