books, Family, Food, News, The Baboon Congress, Uncategorized, Words

I Scream, You Scream

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Over the weekend, PJ got me going when she said “I can think of worse ways to go than death by ice cream.” It reminded me of the time we had talked about death by rhubarb and Clyde actually found a book entitled exactly that. (It was awful!)

So I went looking for death by ice cream titles. Didn’t find exactly that, but found plenty that were close enough.  Here are a few:

Ice Cream Murder (A Sprinkles Cozy Mystery) by Jennifer Martin
Death with a Cherry on Top by Molly Dox
Chunky Raspberry Fudge Murder by Penelope Manzone
Death by Chocolate Sundae by Constance Barker
Triple Dipped Murder by Gretchen Allen
Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake by Sarah Graves

I requested a couple from the library – you never know, maybe I’ll find a new author I need to follow.

But while I was searching around, I found this:

National Ice Cream Death Museum, Derbyshire
Perhaps the most unusual display anywhere in Britain, this small but lively museum is devoted to major accidents, deaths and disasters caused by ice cream, from the great M65 pile-up of 1981 (caused by a discarded vanilla tub, on which a lorry skidded) to the case of the Sussex child who swallowed a wooden ice cream spoon in 1967 and still walks around happily with it inside. Anyone who has any new ice cream disaster to report should ring their Cones Hot Line (sic).
(Independent.co.uk 1998)

I couldn’t find any indication that the museum is still open. I can’t even confirm that there was a great M65 pile-up of 1981 or that a Sussex child swallowed a wooden ice cream spoon in 1967. But it’s fun to think about.

What’s the most interesting museum you’ve ever been to?

45 thoughts on “I Scream, You Scream”

  1. On Victoria Island, part of British Columbia, there is a tiny town along the southwest coast called Sooke. Sooke is a charming place for several reasons, one of which is the Sooke Regional Museum. The museum celebrates the history of the area, emphasizing logging and fishing. It is the perfect small museum with displays that bring the past back to life. I can still picture the miniature diorama logging camp with tiny horses hitched to huge logging sleds.

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  2. OT: forty-one years ago today my life was forever changed when my daughter was born. The tiny naked person who came into this world howling protests is now a woman whose unfailing kindness, love and wisdom are the best part of my life. I have to shake my head now at the difficulty I had making the decision to become a father. Fatherhood seemed risky to me for several reasons, including the fear it would hamper my development as a trout fisherman. And, truth to tell, it did. But that was one decision I got right, gloriously right.

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  4. In Mpls. there used to be a Museum of __________ strange stuff, and I can’t remember what it was called. Very unique. In its place I give you these: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/minnesota/weirdest-museums-mn/

    OT: We’re headed out on road trip to Georgia and Florida to visit friends and family, and I get a side trip (to Seneca in the dry part of South Carolina) for a reunion with college friends. We now have a laptop, so I hope to not lose contact completely for the next 12 days, but it will be sketchy. Happy autumn, baboons!

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    3. oh i have access to laptops for $25 if anyone has a need hp windows 7
      a friend had 100 for schools
      if you know a non profit it’s free
      100 desk tops windows 10
      100 laptops windows 7

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      5. Tim, can I get a desktop and a laptop for $25 each? My youngest son could use one for college and I could use one myself at home. What type of computer/CPU are they?

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    1. Yes, that was it!
      (I am thrilled to report that our laptop works at the Super 8 in Metropolis, IL, AND we’ve thus far been able to figure it out.)

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  6. Hard to say which museum we’ve visited was the most interesting, but one we always meant to visit was Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, MO. I fear we’ve lost our chance, as Leila’s website is now offline but here’s a review:
    https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11479
    Another fascinating museum in that neck of the woods is the Steamboat Arabia Museum in Kansas City. The Arabia was on its way up the Missouri in 1856 with supplies for the frontier when it hit a snag and quickly sank in the silty river bottom, where it stayed with its 200 tons of cargo until it was rediscovered in the 1980s. The museum is a display of the cargo and its unusual in that everything in the museum is from exactly the same slice of time. Much of what was recovered is remarkably well preserved—everything from clothing items to tools and hardware to bottled can goods and French cognac.
    The Shelburne Museum in Vermont is an open air museum that features historical buildings that have been assembled there, but also fabulous collections of things like cigar store indians, ship’s mast heads, and weathervanes, circus wagons and other carriages, clothing items, historic fiber arts and much more. We’ve been there twice.
    More accessible from Minneapolis and just as interesting is the John Kohler Museum in Sheboygan, WI. It’s dedicated to outsider art produced by unschooled but singularly focused individuals with, apparently, time on their hands. The Kohler Foundation also supports and maintains a number of outsider artist sites throughout Wisconsin and elsewhere.

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  7. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    The Mississippi River Museum in Memphis is my favorite. Along with all the traditional type museum and education exhibits, is a concrete model of the Mighty Miss that goes for several blocks and allows the museum-goer to experience the river both from a distance and up close. There are also a lot of exhibits about the Civil War action that occurred along the river, much of which is often forgotten amidst the higher profile battles which occurred in the East USA.

    Soon I want to travel to see the Polymer Clay museum somewhere is Wisconsin.

    There is another small, living museum I remember loving in the Smokey Mountain National Park in which the construction of Appalachian brooms was demonstrated. It was really interesting. I love the brooms (I have two here which I bought.)

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  9. Several museums around Lake Superior document the history of the lake, including dramatic shipwrecks. The Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in the Canal Park area of Duluth is free and interesting. That’s just part of what has happened to Duluth. I used to know it as a depressing rust belt failed city. Today it is a delightful tourist destination and even a foodie town.

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  10. Hard to say, but a recent one that comes to mind is the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. Best part was how cultures all around the world developed their footwear based on the materials available and the purpose of the footwear. Arctic societies were the most fascinating.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  13. There used to be a medical oddity museum at Mayo Clinic Rochester. There are still a lot of historical exhibits and such and the “transparent Man” is still there. But I haven’t found the collection of things people have swallowed all in one place anymore like it was.

    https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2018/03/09/mayo-clinic-flashback-1933-introducing-transparent-man/

    What was the airplane museum place in Owatonna; next to Cabellas? I enjoyed that museum.

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  17. YA and I went to the Sheffield Wildlife Museum in Iowa when she was little; we found information about it in the state’s tourism brochure. No offense to Steve, our resident taxidermist but it was horrifying. All the animals had been killed by one guy on safaris over the years. Trophy heads on walls and even coffee tables made from elephant feet. Awful.

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    2. There was a hardware store in Sioux Falls owned by a successful big game hunter. He displayed all his kills in the store. Elementary schools took students there for field trips. He eventually gave the skins and figures to the Great PlainsZoo, and they built a museum for them.

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