Ever had a bad foot? Limps and broken legs were once celebrated at the Museum of Crutches in Azerbaijan (don’t ask me where this is…I’m an American). The museum is now closed, but knowing it once existed makes me happy. Located in the renowned health resort town of Naphthalan (or...
In my own backyard sits the Platen Press Museum. Paul Aken of Zion, Illinois has an amazing collection of letterpress, type, multigraphing, stone lithography, bookbinding and everything cast iron from the 1800’s through the mid 1900’s. You know, when things used to be printed? Remember that? Probably not…you’re too busy...
Of course there’s a Vodka Museum in Moscow, Russia. But the Amsterdam version appears to be much cooler. Located in the busiest spot in the city, you and a guide learn about the interesting history, production process and different types of vodka over 3 floors. The best part is you...
These creepy crawlies got nothing on the thousands of dust mites that live in your pillowcase and bedsheets. Sweet dreams. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.
My apologies for the recent turn of events, in which I have posted random thoughts on architectural analysis of musems and random photos of people painting in the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the last month this blog has lost its original purpose of telling you about one-of-a-kind attractions. So...
Thanks to writer and artist and former taxi driver Dmitry Samarov for letting me know about the “Virtual Museum of Taxi Meters”. I’ve written about digital museums before, from the Vibrator Museum in Michigan to the Big Internet Museum, not available in the real world of course because it’s about...
About two years ago the Grant Museum of Zoology, the only remaining university zoological museum in London, converted an old office/storeroom into a beautiful back-lit cave displaying 2,323 of the tiniest specimens in its collection. The slides show whole small animals (don’t forget that 95% of known animal species are...
If anyone remembers this month’s only post, I am taking a little bit of a break. But I can’t let go of my annual tradition of creepy, scary museums and attractions (see October 2012 and October 2011 in the archive if you have nothing better to do with your time)....
Our ancestors were lucky if they had a single photograph of their wedding day, if they had any at all. That’s nothing compared to the brides and grooms of today who have thousands of pics (and changed facebook statuses) to prove to the world they are married, are important and...
The Lorraine Motel in Memphis is the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Now part of a 4 acre complex of buildings that make up the National Civil Rights Museum, the motel is connected by underground tunnel to the Young and Morrow Buildings, where James Earl Ray initially confessed (and...
Dover, Ohio’s Warther Carvings Museum was started by Ernest “Mooney” Warther, who dedicated his life to carving a single block of wood. The result of all this hard work is the “plier tree”. It has 511 interconnected pliers carved from over 30,000 cuts to that one piece. Besides the tree,...
The Museum of Wildlife, Industry and Science in Webster, South Dakota has a shoe collection housed in a special building. What makes it so special? Well, as you can see from the above photo it resembles a shoe that no one in the real world or with the right mind...
