May 31, 2022

RISQUÉ LANDMARKS  Controversial Roadside Attractions  There is no right or wrong way to interact with the 11-foot-tall statue of a grinning man with an enormous phallus recently erected outside Trujillo, the biggest city on Peru’s north coast. The crimson fiberglass structure is the scaled-up version of a ceramic vessel from pre-Hispanic Moche culture. Famous among their huacos—as ancient pottery is known in Peru—are portrayals of massive penises, masturbation, and various forms of intercourse. These artworks have long lived in museums and history books as representations of fertility and life. But seeing the imposing landmark caused commotion in a country where the Catholic church still exerts major influence on public policy.  READ MORE → TOKYO, JAPAN Pigment Every color in the rainbow awaits you at this store. Pigment is dry concentrated color dust used to give fabric, ink, plastics, and, of course, paint their hue. By adding a binding agent like oil or glue to the powder, the pigment becomes adhesive. It’s an older style of paint-making as opposed to purchasing paint pre-mixed, but many artists prefer it for its simplicity and versatility. READ MORE → ACTS OF GENEROSITY Kindness Across the Seas The Choctaw people had been in Oklahoma less than two decades before news spread about an all-consuming famine in Ireland. Having been ousted from their ancestral lands in Mississippi, they were slowly making a new home for themselves, when, on March 23, 1847, members of the struggling tribe were asked to make a donation for those starving strangers, thousands of miles away. And, incredibly, they did. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA COURSES | STARTS 6/4 Recreate Ancient Recipes Turn your kitchen into a vessel for gastronomic time travel, using historical recipes and modern ingredients to create dishes from ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Rome, and the Mediterranean Middle Ages during this 3-part lecture series. ENROLL TODAY → GO-TO UTENSILS What Can You Use Sheep Bones For? These tools may look rough, but in the right hands they could be surprisingly precise. A British country magazine from 1958 contains this account of a man describing how his mother used hers: With a scoop in one hand, and an apple in the other, she would carve away the fruit’s flesh until nothing was left but a hollow skin, which would “crumple in the hand like paper.” These were apple scoops, and their purpose was quite practical: In the days before widely accessible dentures, they allowed the elderly and toothless to enjoy fresh apples without straining their remaining teeth. READ MORE → LA MALBAIE, QUÉBEC Les Jardins de Quatre-Vents Calling this a “garden” doesn’t begin to describe it. t’s actually about 25 different gardens — including Japanese, rose, white, rock, sculpture, shade, and kitchen gardens. There are exotic and rare Asian plants, reflecting pools and waterfalls, and the St. Lawrence River itself—Les Jardins de Quatre-Vents’ major water feature. READ MORE → RADICAL ROOTS Lesbian Potlucks Potlucks have been a hallmark of queer women’s spaces since the 1950s, when the Daughters of Bilitis, the U.S.’s first modern lesbian organization, began meeting in secret over coffee in San Francisco. The humble potluck has a radical history—from secret ‘50s meetups to ‘70s separatist communes, shared cooking and eating has long nourished the lesbian movement. To understand how the shared meal became lesbian canon, we have to return to a time before marriage equality and Stonewall, to a small house in San Francisco. READ MORE → WHERE HISTORY STANDS STILL Ghost Towns Ghost towns are often described in terms of “what was” or “what could have been.” During their heydays, these once-booming places were often filled with both people and hope. Today, these decaying shells of promise and prosperity can be haunting, sad, exciting—sometimes perfectly preserved time capsules. From former mining boomtowns to towns built by Black Americans as safe havens from discrimination, here are 22 of America’s best preserved ghost towns. READ MORE → FREE MEMBERS-ONLY EVENT A Celebration of Historical Mistakes During this live presentation and Q+A show, curious researcher Dr. Kelly Reidy will dig into the influential mistakes that have shaped our world. Learn about the characters and circumstances surrounding the greatest accidental discoveries in art, science, and history. RSVP TODAY →