How to Work Better

Mural in Zurich:

http://www.swiss-miss.com/2011/08/how-to-work-better.html

Pickle Party! Immigration and Pickle History in the NYT, and in Lowell

Nice article I failed to link to a couple weeks ago when it was published in the New York Times: Immigrant Identities, Preserved in Vinegar?

One of the biggest battles over assimilation occurred a century ago in New York City, and the battleground was food. Politicians, public health experts and social reformers were alarmed by what they saw as immigrants’ penchant for highly seasoned cooking...Strongly flavored food, these officials believed, led to nervous, unstable people. Nervous, unstable people made bad Americans.

No immigrant food was more reviled than the garlicky, vinegary pickle. 

Speaking of which...Seeing as early-20th century immigration and industrial history are deeply interconnected pieces of our country's evolving story, Lowell National Historical Park presents Immigrant Food Traditions: Pickles on September 8 at 7:00 p.m. Demonstration, talk, and a movie! Check it out!

So, kosher dill or half-sours? Is there really any contest?

This is the best I can get at the supermarket in Mass., ok? Yum.

Back on Track in Richmond with...Mocha Dick and Confederate Industrial Ruins

Ok, getting Museum at Work back on track from de facto summer hiatus. After about a million different plans for first week of August, I ended up visiting my charming brother in DC, who was accommodating and delighftul enough to drive me all the way to Richmond to see this fantastic, totally rad installation at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Presenting...Tristan Lowe's Mocha Dick:

Tristin Lowe’s colossal sculpture Mocha Dick is a fifty-two-feet-long recreation of the real-life albino sperm whale that terrorized early 19th-century whaling vessels near Mocha Island in the South Pacific. Mocha Dick, described in appearance as “white as wool,” engaged in battle with numerous whaling expeditions and inspired Herman Melville’s epic Moby-Dick (1851). Lowe worked with the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia to make the sculpture: a large-scale vinyl inflatable understructure sheathed in white industrial felt.


 Unbelievable. Naturally, I HAD TO GO. IT WAS SUPER WORTH IT.

I think this is a brilliant and effective museum touch:

Next up, the National Park Service Civil War Visitor Center at the site of the Tredegar Iron Works. In search of my National Park Passport stamp, I admit that I had no idea we were stumbling into the remains of the Confederacy's main iron works. Pretty creepy. I also admit that we skipped the private museum, had a lovely chat with an NPS volunteer, and then poked around the industrial remains. In addition to a partially intact waterpower system, most of the remaining infrastructure was post-Civil War era manufacturing equipment, and the Park Service has displayed a number of turbine pieces outside so visitors can explore the 19th century technology up close and personal, including:

• touching
• smelling
• peering
• taking stupid pictures
• climbing
• "whoa"-ing

All of which provided this loudmouth anti-Confederate Northerner an opportunity to make some interesting intellectual and emotional connections with this unusual site. And take a couple dumb pictures. 

My brother could have made some good connections too if he hadn't had to say, "Em, the park rangers are going to yell at us" every fifteen seconds. That no-touch stigma is hard to shake.