King Tut (buried in his jammies)

Went to see the King Tut exhibit over the weekend. Cool, if a bit overpriced. ivy03 provided running commentary from the Egypt lecture series she just listened to. Some of it I knew my class on Egyptian art in college, some I'd completely forgotten, some was new. I provided running snarky commentary on casework and layout and the particular scientist featured (and the politics behind it). I don't know if working in traveling exhibits has spoiled me.

The gift store, on the other hand, was so over-commercial it gave me hives. There were all the usual books and jewelry and t-shirts that you'd expect. But there were also the most amazing assortment of tacky crap imaginable. Unfathomably ugly sequined stuffed headdresses, and incredibly hideous teddy bears with fake pharaoh beards and cheap "puzzles" that consisted of two blocks of wood. Hookahs and hip scarves. "Ornaments" made of string and gold tinfoil in the vague shape of a mummy doll. Plus robots and moon shoes for no reason I could discern. I guess the $2000 wine cooler shaped like a sarcophagus was kind of cool in a hideous sort of way...