infomancer

Every once in a while, we all need to break out of our everyday ruts and do something we’ve never done before.  For those of us without tons of money to spend on things like skydiving, it can be fun to explore some of the oddities close to home.  You might be surprised just how many there are (no, I’m not talking about your neighbor…).  Atlas Obscura is a fabulous compilation of just such things.

Take Houston, for example.  Now, there’s no question that Texas is full of…  erm…  oddities.  Houston has some incredible cult followings for places like the Aurora Picture Show, Orange Show and the Art Car Museum.  Even the giant heads are pretty well known.  But have you heard of the National Museum of Funeral History? 

Did you know you can visit a scale replica of China’s Forbidden City and the Emperor Qin’s mausoleum?  With such a high concentration of strangeness, you’ll never be bored again.

Even we docile Midwesterners have some incredible oddities up their sleeves.  The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Milwaukee looks like it has some great treasures.  There’s also a Mustard Museum, where you can meet the Duchess of Mustard.  I wonder if she knows the Earl of Sandwich…

[via GOOD | images via Atlas Obscura]

I love sheep.  Really, I love just about all furry creatures.  But something about sheep just makes me laugh. 

I also love old technology (although I still don’t understand punch-card computers…).  So I thought this exhibit at the Museum of Communications in Frankfurt was stellar!

Sheep made of rotary phones!  This exhibit by Jean Luc Cornec has been circling the web for years, but I just saw it for the first time the other day.  I love how, from a distance, they still look super fluffy – like you could walk up and sink your hands in.

I have to admit, though.  After the initial glee, a strange sort of post-apocalyptic discomfort sets in. 

[via Inhabitat, and a thousand others]