The Jewish New Year began yesterday evening at sunset. What better way to party like it’s 5773 than with the Center for Jewish History’s wonderful selection of vintage Rosh Hashanah greeting cards. All date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are written in English, Hebrew and Yiddish....
I’d like to think I wasn’t a bad person during my younger days. Well, except for that time I tried to stab a boy with a carving tool in pottery class (he had been making fun of me for months but he probably just liked me???) that led to a...
Literally in the middle of nowhere Argentina (actually in a town called Nono) is the Rocsen Museum, a “multi-faceted” collection of 23,000 artifacts from every aspect of human life. The collection was started by Juan Santiago Bouchon, originally from France, who was determined to not only acquire archaeological and anthropological...
Cross in the Woods is a National Catholic Shrine located in Northern Michigan. Hundreds of thousands visit every year to see what is considered the largest crucifix in the world (31 feet high to be exact). During theses pilgrimages, I hope people also pay their respects to the Nun Doll...
Thanks to the American roadside wax museum, even this daffy site can commemorate such a somber event. ,Verso:,“JOHN BROWN,Oct. 16, 1859, John Brown and 21 others captured the United States arsenal and rifle works at Harper’s Ferry, Va., now W. Va., with the intention of setting up a mountain refuge...
In case you don’t know, cryptozoology means the “study of hidden animals”, such as legendary or nonexistent ones. Dinosaurs, Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster come to mind. Check out the International Museum of Cryptozoology next time you’re in Portland, Maine.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is known for its period rooms; an 18th century dining room from London and a living room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are just a few examples of the many rooms on display there. They’re meant to show “how people lived”, even though the rooms...
There is a saying that “if something exists in a variety of types, sizes, shapes or colors, you can be sure that somebody, somewhere, collects it.” In a world awash in material goods, it is pretty difficult to not be a collector. And I applaud anyone who doesn’t collect anything,...
In case you’ve never heard of a magic lantern, let me tell you. That’s why I’m here. The earliest known slide projector, Laterna Magica as it is sometimes called, dates all the way back to the seventeenth century when a German Jesuit first wrote about directing a light through a...
Believe it or not, I am a bowling champion. Okay, more like a high school bowling champion but I have a trophy so that shit counts. Anyway, if I ever find myself traveling through Oklahoma on Highway 169 on my way to Tulsa (which is highly unlikely but you never...
Today is Columbus Day, but forget that shit and take a minute (or two) to learn about L’anse aux Meadows. Located at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland in Canada, this World Heritage Site is the only known Viking settlement to be found in North America. Estimated to have been established...
Artist Nina Jordan’s “Homes for Under $50,000” is a collection of large-scale reduction woodcut prints of foreclosed houses across the United States. The artist explains her unusual choice of subject matter: “After the mortgage crisis, I was still looking, as I always had, and seeing incredible deals [in real estate...
