If your favorite film is Deliverance, then you should check out the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City. It has the largest display of banjos anywhere in the world. Visitors learn about the instrument’s beginnings in 17th century American slavery to its use in today’s bluegrass and folk music scenes....
Yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of when the United States officially took $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills out of circulation. How’s that Gin & Juice lyric go again? I can hear it now…“with my mind on my money and my money on my mind”. Speaking of money, last Friday...
In the St James’s area of central London is the oldest cigar merchant in the world, JJ Fox & Robert Lewis. The tobacco business was started by Robert Lewis in 1787. James J Fox was formed in Dublin in 1881 and moved to London in 1947. The two businesses were...
I’ve never really been into make-up. With the exception of foundation and some concealer (due to my hormonally challenged skin), I hardly ever wear it. Come to think of it, I also don’t really like shopping, clothes, jewelry, weddings and babies soooooo just take my female parts away now!!! Well,...
I’ve never been to Ireland, but my friend visited once during St. Patrick’s Day and to her surprise it was a very quiet day. The only other people celebrating the holiday appeared to be Americans (we’re annoying wherever we go). I should have warned her. When I was living in...
Bob’s Magazine Museum in Skokie (my birthplace…why don’t they have a sign?) is a place I have driven by numerous times, but have never personally visited. You might think it’s just a store full of stuff, but it’s more than that. It’s actually more of a “museum” in there is...
When I visited Deutschland (or Germany for non-Germans) a few years back, I noticed their obsession with recycling. Everywhere you looked there was some kind of receptacle for a specific kind of material; blue for paper, yellow for plastic and metals, red for food and plant waste, etc. Glass is...
Who would expect a pop-up museum in a former prison, but that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia. In operation from 1829 to 1971 and home to famous criminals like Al Capone, the facility reopened in 1994 with guided tours and special events...
Not too many museums are named after doctors, or are located in old insane asylums, so you’d be crazy to not visit this next museum. Located in Belgium’s oldest psychiatric hospital (built in 1857), the Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent has been open to the public for almost thirty years....
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to open up my own museum. Well, one man in Britain did just that, specifically with old radios, televisions and gramphones. They fill every room in his south London suburb home. This do-it-yourself museum, called the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum,...
We’ve covered potatoes here before. Several times actually. Look at the August 2010 archive if you don’t believe me. There are several museums across the world dedicated to this starchy wonder; but surprisingly nothing for the Yukon Gold variety, which is the perfect potato for mashing. The Sweet Potato appears...
I once told you about that time I visited the Ramones Museum in Berlin. I’ve also told you about many small museums, like the 22 square foot closet known as Edgar’s Closet, the Micro Mµseum in Somerville, the World’s Largest Collection of the Smallest Versions of Large Things as well...
