05 Thursday Nov 2009
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And for an even more dramatic juxtaposition, here is an 1862 letter from the Goodwin family papers on our Binder Minder copier ready to be photocopied for a researcher unable to visit the Society in person. Talk about oldgasms.
03 Tuesday Nov 2009
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One of the craziest things about working at an institution that’s been around since 1791 (and in its current location since the 1890s) is that old furniture gets put to new twenty-first century uses: this cabinet once used to store the Parkman Papers now houses our staff microwave.
30 Friday Oct 2009
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My friend and colleague Jeremy refers to this portrait hallway on the third floor of the Massachusetts Historical Society as the “Hogwarts Hallway.” It definitely feels like the portraits are watching you as you make your way through it. I get the feeling that at night, after the building is shut down, the probably take a wander around the other floors to socialize.
29 Thursday Oct 2009
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This is the first in a series of snapshots I took at the MHS recently, when I happened to have my camera in my bag when I went in to work. (Some of them are a bit blurry or dim, due to not using a flash). This is a shot from the third floor looking down the spiral stair to the reception desk in our first floor lobby.
26 Monday Oct 2009
. . . and choose to share that amusement with all of you.
This morning, I spent several hours on Midwest Airlines aircraft on my journey from Boston to Michigan, during which time I flipped through the complimentary SkyMall catalog provided in my seat pocket — it’s like Sears Roebuck for the 12st century! The sheer randomness and bizarreness of the SkyMall catalog never fails to delight. Here are a few of my favorite from this particular edition.
This young man clearly paused halfway through the conversion to cyberman for a senior-year style photoshoot.
While this item is being sold as a back massager, it is clearly a highly complex sex toy designed for a wild night of orgiastic delight.
This isn’t exactly hilarious, but since I’m taking a class right now on collective memory, and we’ve talked some about how both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy have figured in national collective memory over time, I found it interesting that these four images have been selected and placed side by side.
For all of you (I know you are out there!) who worry about unslightly white feet during the summer — worry no more! Thanks to SkyMall, you can order your very own foot-sized tanning bed to make sure your feet are sandle-ready all summer long. (Doesn’t it look like the person’s feet are being melted off in the bottom picture? or is it just me?)
And finally, the creme-de-la-creme . . .
There’s really so much wrong with this particular product that I can’t even begin to do it justice here . . . but let me just point out that I love how the perceived options here are a) a fake, removable ass or b) a fake, surgically-created ass. Not just, you know, your bum au naturale.
Cheerio kiddos; I’ll be checkin’ in as time permits! Now it’s off to cuddle on my parents’ couch with cocoa, cat, and my weekly reading for Collective Memory before the early morning catches up with me.
24 Saturday Oct 2009
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Hanna and I admire this pot every time we walk passed it on our way to the Clear Flour bakery.
22 Thursday Oct 2009
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After this, I promise pictures of things other than graffiti for a while. But I just had to share this awesome wall of graffiti art outside the auto garage down the street from our apartment. It’s an ever-changing work of art, but the colors of this incarnation make me especially happy.
18 Sunday Oct 2009
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The thing I like best about the graffiti on this fire hydrant is the little circle above “holy” that looks like a halo. It makes the overall effect one of a person trying to swear and be cute at the same time.
15 Thursday Oct 2009
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I noticed this little guy painted on one of the walls near our apartment recently. He/she/it looks adorable which probably means he/she/it is about to rip out my throat.
15 Thursday Oct 2009
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Hanna was at lush earlier this week restocking on a few of our regular shampoo and soap products and she brought me home one of the new Christmas season “bath bomb” bubble bath bars, gnome name, which she informs me at the local store they are referring to as “buddy the christmas lobster” which suggests that they are all well-versed in the nativity play performed in love actually.
the feminist librarian 