Sci has not had time to get heavy with the science. This is because she took the weekend off to hang in Philly. And it means I got to see the Mutter Museum of Medical Oddities!!!
Apparently, in the olden days, they used to give gentlemen a drink of sherry before the viewed the exhibits, to “strengthen the mental faculties”. I could have used to mental faculty strengthening. Not because it was gross or anything (though Mr. SiT found a few of the exhibits a little stomach turning), but because there’s SO MUCH. I saw a LOVELY fetal pig example of cyclopia (the snout shape helps emphasize the proboscis effect), and the megacolon was excellent, though not as well preserved as I hoped. The only thing I can say, though, is that they need more space, and that they may be trying to do too much. Because they’re trying to emphasize the weird, while also emphasizing the science, stuff gets left out. How did the soap lady die? What are the features of the fetus at each stage of development. And though there were lovely piles of bones, I REALLY could have used some labels. Sci has always wanted to take some time off to take medical anatomy, because she is currently woefully deficient in this area.
Still, lots of great stuff to be seen. I particularly liked the wall of eye diseases (all the diseases of the lachrymal glands lined up really show the similarities and differences). Good slices of the brain, and a couple of excellent examples of stroke. Beautiful fetal specimens, and a couple of nice models of uterine prolapse. People will probably LOVE the specimen of Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Sci definitely recommends for all of your Weird Science needs. 🙂 I’ve got lots of blog fodder!
After the museum, we stopped by Rouge, a restaurant acclaimed for its cheeseburger covered in Gruyere and onions (AWESOME). And most awesome of all, they invented a drink for me!!! Sci loves anything with ginger in it. They had a “gingerly” cocktail, but it unfortunately was full of gin as well as ginger. As Sci also has a severe visceral reaction to gin, she asked for some help. She got this:
Heavy splash sours (they make their own, 2pts lime juice, 1 pt lemon juice, granulated sugar)
2 oz Stonge’s ginger (apparently you can find this by asking for currant wine)
1 oz courvossier
1 oz St. Germaine
Shake w/ice. Strain. Serve with garnish of crystallized ginger.
It was DELICIOUS. It now ranks as Sci’s top drink EVER. She would like to name it the Sci-curiously ginger cocktail. But she will take further suggestions. 🙂 The waitresses all liked it, too. My hope is that one day you’ll see it on the menu.
