Standing up for Museums

I will be the first to admit I have never really understood the appeal of a lot of museums. As an (alleged) historian, that is a terrible thing to say...but frankly, the appeal of wandering through a hall looking at rusted shovels and broken wagon wheels just doesn't float my boat. If I want to see a shovel I can walk to the nearest hardware store and see one that is bright, shiny, new, and looks better. If I want to see a wheel I can hop in my car to drive to the hardware store, stopping momentarily to check out the wheel right there on my modern chariot.

And as a baseball fan I suppose I should be fascinated to look at THE BALL that Gibson knocked out against the Eck in '88. You know what? I have seen a lot of baseballs and they all look pretty much the same. I even have had a few with names attached...yeah, still just a baseball. I had a pretty good laugh when MLB was making sure they had specially marked baseballs while Bar-roid chased down Hammerin' Hank because, you know, people would get less enjoyment from seeing a REPLICA of THE BALL than they would from actually seeing The Ball. Even if they did not know they were looking at a different ball, they somehow would get less enjoyment from it. Uh...yeah. Okay, so I don't get "normal" museums...

I also really don't get most of the off-beat museums...I don't need to see the Shuffleboard Hall of Fame, the Badminton Museum, the Museum of Pet Rocks, or even the home to The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.

And I certainly don't need to see the world's only (hopefully) Penis Museum, whether it has a human penis on display or not...