Places to See Before I Die: The Mutter Museum

I think it's about time I make myself a list of places I want to go before I die. Because I plan to die while I'm still spry. Preferably in a freak hangliding accident. Over the Grand Canyon.

When I'm eighty.

Anyway, there are the usual places: Europe. The Outback. Sonic (there are NO branches in LA and I want one of those Fried Mac N Cheese things).

I read a lot about places, and I watch the travel channel religiously, but there is something to be said for actually standing on the footsteps of something real. It affects me profusely and if I close my eyes and just breathe, I feel like I'm transporting.

I'm the nerd who takes the tours that no one's heard of, who salivated and went an hour out of her way to visit the Winchester house, that crazy place where stairs led to into the ceiling and doors opened into nothing.

When I was in London, I visited the Westminster Abbey, and as I sat in the artists corner, looked at plaques and tombstomes, I nearly cried.

There's something about reality that gets me in a way that fiction never does, probably because I spend so much time immersed in fantasy.

That said, visiting the Mutter Museum will probably freak me out in such a way I'll most likely be scarred for life. It's one thing to watch a show and see a dude with a horn sprouting out of his head. I mean... you know it took five make up guys to strap that thing on there (see: hellboy). But to see an actual old lady with a horn on her head?

That's just not right.

Still, fiction derides from truth, and if the Mutter Museum, located in Philadelphia, established in 1858, is any indication, fiction doesn't hold a candle to the astonishing realities and rarities that crop up before us.

It's a nice reminder that there's something fanastically weird about people.

For a preview, check out Newsweek's feature photospread on the place - but just remember that i warned you about the chick with a horn in her head.