Museuming

Just curious, could the designers of the exhibits NOT
find a less trite font? Did they even look?

Ten and I drove into Cambridge yesterday to check out the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology 

Now, I do get all all rankled, to say the least, when I see all this stuff that obvs belonged to people who’ve been conquered, slaughtered and otherwise taken hideous advantage of. It’s just sitting here in a damn museum, thousands of miles away from the people it rightly belongs to!

Well, turns out Harvard is all UP ion the Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act's(NAGPRA.

What is NAGPRA?
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by Congress in 1990. It requires institutions that receive federal funding to inventory their collections, consult with federally recognized Native American tribes, and repatriate human remains or cultural items that meet certain criteria. In structuring conditions for repatriation, NAGPRA prioritizes a principle termed “cultural affiliation” which means a reasonable relationship can be demonstrated between an identifiable earlier group and a present-day federally recognized tribe or tribes. A full presentation of the process as stipulated by the NAGPRA statute and regulations is available at National NAGPRA, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. (source)

 Not ideal but way more better than before. You can read more about Harvard’s compliance at that source link above.

From there we went to the Natural History Museum where the BIG room of Glass Flowers lives. I haven’t been to this joint in, mebbe, 20 years or more. Way back then, everything, EVERYthing was dusty as hell and distinctly unimpressive. Not so this time around.  Sadly, by the time we got in there, my back was just KILLING me. I spent a lot of time sitting versus gazing and reading about all the displays.

We didn't wander the large gallery of stuffed dead animals but that's just as well – I prolly would've started crying and ranting. How long would it have been before I started yelling about Douchebag Jr.'s affection for killing beings who, CLEARLY, have greater intelligence and hu-fucking-manity than his entire family put together.

After the museums we met Hillel for lunch at the S&S. Maybe not the best place as it brings up so damn many memories. Not all bad but the joint throws me into a bit of a time warp.

Today Ten and I will take it easy – let my back rest. KEE-rist, this recovery's taking WAY too damn long!

Not only were there glass flowers, there were glass octopuses! WANT!

Ocean Dino – I betcha the Iceland Phallological Museum would LURV a very specific piece of him!

One of the zillion and one half glass flowers  (YES, all made of glass!) on display