Every year I like to say that Saint Valentine was given red roses and candy hearts for loving Christ instead of being beaten with clubs, stoned, and beheaded for refusing to deny Christ before the Emperor Claudius. Forget weddings, overpriced greeting cards, and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, February 14th is...
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...
Through the years we have told you about people who have “talked” to God and created something from those conversations. Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden in Georgia and the well-known Salvation Mountain in Slab City are just a few examples. Well, the Minister’s Treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee is another one we...
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...
I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog these last few months. Sorry about that. You know, life…it happens. In case you were interested, one annoying thing that happened recently - I cracked my phone twice in a 48 hour period, which I didn’t think was possible. I had to replace...
It’s a well-known fact that Michigan is known for cars. More than 2.3 million cars and trucks rolled off Michigan assembly lines last year. And let’s not forget Detroit is called the “Motor City”. So it’s not a surprise the state has a number of car museums, like the Automotive...
Thanks to that movie Amélie everyone thinks they’re being cute or adventurous by taking a gnome with them on a trip. A few years ago an acquaintance of mine was “doing Europe” (that shit makes me groan) by seeing like 15 countries in 60 days. If you figured out this...
We interrupt our regularly scheduled July 4th programming to honour another patriotic holiday, Canada Day. Nearly one-hundred years after the United States gained independence from the British, three colonies were united into a single country called Canada within the British Empire (Canada still exists…the British Empire is now called “Brexit”)....
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...
I have a friend who collects various versions of Monopoly games. I wonder if she knows that Discovery Meadow, near the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose, California has the “Monopoly in the Park” board, the largest permanent version of the game in the world. Constructed in 1992, the massive...
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...
