“at the oxymoron museum” ©John Atkinson, Wrong Hands

Our Membership department is pleased to announce another reciprocal museum benefit for our members. All members will now receive admission to the Oxymoron Museum. This museum is brilliantly curated by its director, John Atkinson, who has organized its collections with unusual rigor.

Museum of Water.

Our membership department is pleased to introduce another sister institution with reciprocal benefits for our lower-level members. The Museum of Water is “a collection of publicly donated water and accompanying stories.”

The museum boasts more than “700 bottles in the collection, ranging from water from a holy river in India, to a burst London water main, ice from a Sussex field, a melted snowman, 20-year-old evaporated snow from Maine, condensation from a Falmouth window, Hackney rainwater, a new born baby’s bath water, Norwegian spit, three types of wee, two different breaths and water from a bedside table said to be infused with dreams.”

Some of our members maintain that a museum of water makes too much sense to be associated with the Museum of Folly. But our management team finds it hard to resist an institution with these kinds of liquid assets.

From the Director:

It seems all our staff is doing these days is taking field trips to other museums. People! We really need to get a little less focused! How about an actual exhibition once in a while?

The latest addition to the list of our possible reciprocal membership admissions, in honor of the Year of the Rabbit, is the Bunny Museum in L.A., the hoppiest place in the world!

Various places of origin
Plastic, metal, wood, and colors
Various lenders

Since our building is new, our Operations, Visitor Services, and Graphics departments have been researching signage options. This small exhibition of 14 signs presents those that our cross-departmental working team felt would be most suitable for our institution.

Below is a list of what the signs signify, as well as the original source.

Our Membership department was excited to learn about a new institution called The Museum of Obsessions. We hope to arrange reciprocal admission for our members.

The museum’s Membership department is exploring the possibility of a reciprocal museums program. Some of the institutions we are hoping to partner with include the following. We will add more institutions to the list as we continue our research:

• Barber Jon’s Museum of Curiosities and Oddities
• Bigfoot Discovery Museum
• Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia
• Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum
• Corn Palace
• The Farm Wrench Museum
• Icelandic Phallological Museum
• International UFO Museum and Research Center
• Museum of Bad Art
• Museum of Jurassic Technology
• The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
• SPAM Museum
• Sulabh International Museum of Toilets

We welcome suggestions from the public about other museums for possible inclusion in this program.

The museum’s educators are pleased to introduce a new family program called “Fun with History!” As a first assignment, students should listen to this report by Steven Short on PBS Radio station KALW’s CrossCurrents program.

Short’s topic is Chief Marin, for whom Marin County is named. The students should pay particular attention to this assertion:

“Marin was successful with his own people, with the conquistadors, and then with the Americans.”

The assignment: research when the conquistadors and when the “Americans” were in California, then answer these questions:

1. According to Short’s report, how old was Chief Marin when he died in 1839? Round your answer to the nearest multiple of 100 years.
   
2. And how many English-speaking Americans (as distinct from the Spanish-speaking Californios) would he have had the opportunity to “be successful with” at that time? Round your answer to the nearest vehicle size that they could all fit in (subcompact, compact, midsize, fullsize, or minivan).
   

Have fun with history!

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Shown: Crossing I (1994) by Enrique Chagoya. Acrylic and oil on paper.

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Where are you located?
We are in the Civic Center district, between the State Hysterical Society and the city’s new tech history museum, The Museum of Modem Art. There is no mistaking our facade. The main entrance is on Bouvard Avenue near Pecuchet Street.

What are your hours?
The Museum of Folly never closes. A unique feature of our museum is the availability of beds in several galleries as an amenity for overnight visitors.

Is there a coatroom?
Just throw your coats on one of the beds.

Is there a free entry day?
Entry is always free, although there is sometimes a modest charge to exit.

USA
Mixed organic materials, including sugar, butter, flour, and colors
Via cake wrecks

According to the original owner of this unique object, an image of a man playing golf was submitted on a flash drive to a cake shop. That image was, however, not used, as the following dialogue ensued:

“Hey, Jill, what am I putting on this cake?”
“Oh, check the counter; I left the jump drive out for you there.”
[calling from the back room] “Really? This is what they want on the cake?”
“Yeah, the customer just brought it in.”
“Okey dokey!”

MoFo is pleased to have acquired this unusual flash cake for our permanent collection. It will be on display briefly as our conservators feel an urgent need to stabilize the object against data loss.

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The museum’s Publications department is always after the curators to liven up their writing for our membership magazine. Avoid dull, plodding openings, they urge — instead, find a lively hook. In journalism this is called the “lede” — it’s spelled that way to avoide confusion with “lead” as in “leading” and “lead type.”