Humor Hurts

Today, Heather and I spent so much time at the Museum of Surgery that we actually had to be kicked out. We had stayed past closing. But the place was just too fascinating. And too hilarious. What also is funny, according to the Museum captions, at least, is people's misfortunes.

Entitled, "Malicious Joy in the Misfortune of Others." "Dentistry, particularly in the days before anesthaesia, lent itself to such malicious amusement." So tasteful, so classy.

Note how well put together the Museum displays are, and how very accurate. The date correction isn't noticeable at all. O, gentle reader, how I wish you could have witnessed the effort put into the collection. There were the irrelevant objects, like top hats, decorative maps, and random coins used to fill display cases; the same pictures used to accompany three different sets of captions; and the random table with a collection of unlabeled busts scattered under it that we couldn't really figure out. And oh yeah, there was also a sudden price hike. Even though the main attraction of the Museum, the Pathology Halls, were closed for the day, we had to pay a full entrance fee, a fee that did not exist until a few weeks ago. What two-roomed Museum with typos charges people? Especially after years of free viewing?

This important man was the first to use an umbrella in Eddie Bert. That crazy trendsetter. Now everyone in town has one.

Moi: So what did they do before he came along? They just got wet?
Heather: They wore top hats.
Why, of course.

A large portion of the collection dealt with military injuries. There were bones with musket balls still lodged inside everywhere. In one instance, Lord Uxbridge, who designed his own prosthesis, the first to have a bendable knee, was said to have exclaimed, upon being struck with a bullet at the battle of Waterloo, "My God, Sir, I have lost my leg." To which the Duke of Wellington replied, "My God, Sir, so you have." My God, I love British propriety.

Speaking of museums, a little more compare and contrast between Scotty and Switzer. Each capital has a city museum that has a model of the city.

This was Scotty's:


And these were Switzer's.


Honestly, some countries get all the artistic citizens.