Friday, December 3, 2010

The Dish and Spoon Just Carrying On Like Trash

This is just a silly thing, but I have pictures.  My sister is a scrap-book expert. Every year I get a custom book of photos from her, all done up in grey paper with burgundy trim, or cream paper with sage insets, with pictures from the year. She also makes dynamite cards. It's amazing.

So when she came to town, I was anxious that we check museum exhibits and tourist attractions she might like. Thanks to the Smithsonian, I had a plan!

We went to look at a display of ancient-to-modern pop-up books. Did you know that learned astronomers used pop-up books????? They could study orbits just by sliding a tab. Illustrations by Renaissance Artists of note. I didn't take a picture of it--it was too old and valuable for the Smiths to let us. But it's true: the first pop-up book readers were studying Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. They had to read Latin.

After awhile, the lofty standard of the pop-up book dwindled. Now anyone can own one on astronomy. I just don't know what the world is coming to. All that scientific advance, and here's what we're teaching:


And if that's not bad enough, here's a bunch of bunnies. I think it's a plot to keep children from being afraid of Animal Farm. The next thing you know, your children will grow fur and live in communes. And take a look at that cow on the right. He's clearly plotting something. And from above, you can already see he's won the Space Race. Keep an eye out, you all. It's a sign.


Here are two pages from one of my favorites. This is for you car enthusiasts out there: the Gas Station!


Well, we loved this exhibit. It takes a long time and much effort to make a pop-up book. I wish I had one for calculus back in the day. On the other hand, that probably wouldn't even have reconciled me to calculus.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

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