The Cabinet of Curiosities Blog Carnival is back in town, bringing assorted marvels to light from forgotten museum cases and the murky recesses of fading family lore. Where else do you find yeti crabs and the World's weirdest and most bizarre perfumes presented side by side for your reading convenience? Think of us as the sort of Whitman's sampler P.T. Barnum might have concocted if he hadn't gotten sucked into the animal cracker racket.
Like its namesake curiosity cabinets of old, CofC makes little effort to categorize its offerings, separating sheep from goats and ensuring that nary the twain shall meet. Whatever meaning there may be in this mélange comes from its constituent parts and the 
relationships that you or I are inclined to draw among them. If you are as fascinated as they are at Urlesque.com by the Top Eleven Weirdest Burgers (including this fetching hamburger dress, modeled at right), perhaps you might see a connection between this item and the image of the yeti crab, above, instead of, say, a more logical link to this marvelous collection of some of the weirdest boots that they've ever seen over at StyleTips101. Who am I to prescribe? The author, as those terminally nihilist French deconstructions have been muttering for decades in themusty corners of academe, is decidedly dead. Long live the text (and context)! Hopefully this disclaimer will assuage the wrath of my indignant spouse, who declares that comparing a woman dressed as meat with a crab is utterly beyond the pale. Right, and someday pigs will fly.
Brian at Ancestors At Rest was astounded to find this family photograph which could be a missing link in the the evolution of the Afro. There are some pictures of me in college when I foolishly teased out my long ringlets into something that would have looked fetching on a Borneo head hunter. Hopefully this turn of the 20th century photograph was taken along those same lines. Gena's Genealogy discovered a photograph of Francesco Lentini: "The Human Tripod" in a family archive, and suspects that a Nebraska relative who once housed traveling circus performers my have encountered the three-legged Lentini while he was part of Buffalo Bill's outfit.
CanadaGenealogy, or 'Jane's Your Aunt', which hosted the 11th CofC back in November, delves into her grandmother's button box and finds it a 'marvelous mélange.'
Miles Meyer of Miles' Genealogy Tips shares the story of a remarkable family artifact: the original steamer trunk that his 3rd-great grandfather carried to America from Germany in 1854. This tangible piece of the past becomes a touchstone of discovery, as Meyer's traces the path of his ancestors' immigration. "Starting with just one artifact, an old steamer trunk , I have now gained a much more in depth understanding of the trials that the early immigrants had to endureto come to our great country."
Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, has a fish story about the welcoming fish 
that graces his doorway.
"Some references suggest that my articulated fish may be composed of "Turkish silver" and that it be of fairly recent origin dating to not earlier than the 1920s. As more and more families used a spice box shaped like a tower for the spice ritual, some suggest that the popular fish ritualware piece became more of a decorative piece than as a ritual spice container. The date and place of origin of my fish are unknown. One reference was found to a three-piece set of almost identical fish from the early 1930s but in three sizes (one much larger and one much smaller than the 9.5 inch one I have) used as decorative objects in the style of earlier articulated fish spice boxes."
Liz at the curiously named My Big Fat Cajun/Irish/Scottish/English/German/French/Southern Family Blog discusses the difficult questions raised by her Grandma Elia's French New Testament, and asks;
"Was she swept off her feet when she left her family for a non-Cajun Protestant? Did he attend church? Was it important to him, or was it important only that Elia not be Catholic? Was she ever accepted by her parents again?"
Thomas MacEntee, erstwhile blogger at Destination: Austin Family and past host of Cabinet of Curiosities #10, gives us the story of the mahogany bar and what lurks inside. Thomas unveils each marvel it contains with seductive glee:
"Next, we unlock the doors. Yes there is a lock which allows entry into the lower portion of The Bar - a bit of a chastity belt, as it were - where the serious business takes place. If you know my family you know that a lock is required on most all liquor cabinets and bars."
"mask-wearing, cross-dressing priests and clerks ran amok through their church, burnt old shoes as mock incense and ate black pudding at the altar! "
What relation, if any, this medieval festival has
to
baby jumping, whi
ch grown men dressed as the d
evil have been doin
g in Spain since the
1600's, I will leave to others to deter
mine, but at lea
st they h
ave the decency to leave the bull runn
ing out of it.
Just in time for Presidents Day,
Offbeat Earth rolls out the newest models of the world's
weirdest cars. The Mini Coo
per pick-up looks like it
has just enough payload cap
acity for a pony keg.
Finally, one of CofC's favorite sites, the glorious blog
Curious Expeditions, maintains a Flickr site as well,
featuring oddities and
Curiosities of Nature. If you think a box of taxidermy eyes is just the thing to add to M. Diane Roger's grandmother's button box or Thomas MacEntee's bar, then clearly this carnival was made for you. Why not consider hosting next month's edition?
Thanks Tim for presenting another interesting Cabinet of Curiosities. And thanks for including the fish!
Terry Thornton
Posted by: Terry Thornton | January 20, 2009 at 01:51 PM