ABCs

I have written a number of times about the exhibits at one of Mexico City's quirkiest museums... "Museo del Objeto del Objeto" (Museum of the Object of the Object).  The museum's collection contains everyday objects (and some rather obscure objects) from the 19th and 20th centuries.  A lot of the stuff would probably be thrown into the trash or stashed away in the basement by most people, but these objects provide a snapshot of what life was like over the course of the last couple of centuries.  The museum was the brainchild of Bruno Newman.  As a teenager he started buying things at flea markets, and over the course of forty years, the collection grew to 140,000 objects.  With donations from other collectors, it now has over 200,000 objects.

The museum was opened in 2010 in Newman's former home, an art nouveau house in the Roma Norte neighborhood.

Obviously, all 200,000 objects are not on display.  There are several exhibits each year which draw on the vast collection.  Some of the shows have been interesting; others have left me scratching my head.  The current exhibit is, in my opinion, the best one I have seen.  It is called "The Collection from A to Z", and it showcases the scope and variety of the collection.  For each letter of the alphabet, they have chosen one or more words, and then selected objects that go with that word.

So, let's begin going through the alphabet.  (I have only selected one word for each letter.)

A is for "automóvil" (automobile)

A selection of small toy cars

B is for "brocha" (paint brush)

C is for "cerveza" (beer)

Oh, no!  They only had one word for the letter "D".

D is for "desnudo" (nude)

A collection of antique dirty photos

I hope this doesn't give my blog an "adult" rating.

E is for "escuela" (school)

A variety of school related objects... boxes of chalk, protractors, compasses, abacuses and student credentials.

F is for "farmacia" (pharmacy)

G is for "gato" (cat)

H is for "herramienta" (tool)

I is for "insecto" (insect)

Old time insecticides

J is for "jabón" (soap)

With this box of Tide, you got a coupon for a free bar of Camay.

(Do they still make Camay?)

K is for "kilogramo" (kilogram)

A collection of scales

L is for "letrero" (sign)

We will continue the alphabet in the next post...

Bye Bye, TripAdvisor

 In February of 2006 I became a member of TripAdvisor, a travel platform in which travelers can write reviews of hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions.  There are also forums in which members offer advice to questions about destinations all over the world.  I found the reviews and forums useful in planning trips, and after returning, I would then write reviews myself.  Over the years I have written more than fifty reviews on places in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Norway, England, Spain, Puerto Rico and, of course, Mexico.  I have written more than 2000 posts on forums.  In recent years, most of my activity on TripAdvisor has been answering questions and commenting on the Mexico City forum.  I am listed as a top contributor.

In the last couple of years, I've noticed a change. Obviously the company has to make a profit, but the platform seemed to become more and more money-grubbing.  There were always advertisements on the forum pages, but now they are popping into the body of the listed threads.  You can now book flights and hotel reservations through the site.  TripAdvisor acquired Viator, a tour booking agency.  If you look at things to do in Mexico City, for example, first they list a dozen tours.  Then they get down to the top-rated attractions in the city.  After that, there a couple dozen more tours that you can reserve... certainly through Viator.

But what really made me upset was a post in one of the threads in the Mexico City forum earlier this month.  A poster made a reference to President Sheinbaum of Mexico, in which he altered her name into an ethnic slur.  (Sheinbaum is Jewish, so you might be able to figure out what he called her.)  There are plenty of people who oppose her politics, as the demonstrations last weekend demonstrated.  Nevertheless, such vile slurs have no place on the forum.  Several of the regular posters, including me, were horrified, and reported the post as inappropriate.  Days passed, and but the hate speech had not been deleted.

Later, another frequent poster, started a thread in which he informed readers that TripAdvisor was going to discontinue direct messaging between members.  Well, within a day his post had been deleted by TripAdvisor as being "off topic".  I then wrote a comment complaining that a post concerning changes in the platform's policies was immediately deleted, but the post with offensive speech was still there.  My post was immediately removed also as being "off-topic".   After many days TripAdvisor finally deleted the ethnic slur, but the whole incident left a sour taste in my mouth.  

I've decided that I am no longer going to participate on TripAdvisor.  It may not matter, however.  Rumor is going around... in posts that were also deleted as being "off-topic"... that TripAdvisor may soon eliminate all the forums too.  They would rather concentrate on the money-making aspects of the platform.

TripAdvisor, you used to be very useful, but it's time for me to say "Adios".

Speedy Delivery

As my readers know, each year I order calendars from Shutterfly which feature photographs that I have taken.  I created the calendar for 2026 some time ago; I already have the calendars for myself and for Alejandro's family.  However, it was a little over a week ago that I placed the order for calendars to be shipped to some friends and family in Ohio, Switzerland and England.

Back when I was living in Ohio, I would have the entire order shipped to my house.  I would then give the calendars personally to those who live in Ohio, and I would go to the post office to send the calendars to my European cousins.  Since Shutterfly ships packages both domestically and internationally, this year I had them do all of the shipping.  I hoped that they would arrive in a timely manner.

I need not have worried.  I placed the orders eleven days ago on Friday, November 7th.  Several of the calendars have already arrived at their destinations.  Surprisingly, the first package to arrive was not in Ohio, but to my cousin Brigitta who lives outside of Zurich, Switzerland.  She messaged me and even sent me the delivery service's photo of the package sitting at her door.  It only took one week from the time of order to delivery in Switzerland.  I found that quite amazing.

   

On the same day, my cousin Hans Peter, who lives in Bern, Switzerland, received his package.  We had a video chat on Zoom on Sunday, and he showed me the calendar.  On Saturday, the calendar arrived at the doorstep of my cousin Gail in Berea, Ohio.  On Monday, my cousin Ruth in the ancestral town of Othmarsingen received hers, although it is strange that her brother Andre, who lives next door, did not receive his. The rest of the calendars are supposed to arrive this week.

I suppose that the promptness of the deliveries may be due, in part, to the fact that I ordered them well before the Christmas rush.

Each year the photos of my custom calendar have a different theme.  You will have to wait until January 1st to see what the theme of the 2026 calendar is.    

Three-Day Weekend

Today is a national holiday in Mexico.  Revolution Day commemorates the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 which toppled the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and changed the nation forever.  The revolution actually began on November 20th, but the observance of the holiday was changed to the third Monday of November in 2006, giving Mexicans a three-day weekend.

However, I think it would be safe to say that this weekend many Mexicans are thinking more about shopping than about the nation's history.  This weekend is the "Buen Fin", Mexico's equivalent of Black Friday in the U.S. and the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

"The cheapest weekend of the year"

For the last fifteen years, thousands of businesses throughout Mexico, have used this weekend as a time to offer sales and promotions to bring out shoppers in droves.

Did we brave the crowds and join in the shopping frenzy?  Yes, on yesterday Alejandro and I took the Metrobus from the family house and went to the nearest mall, Parque Tepeyac.

The mall was very busy, but not as insanely crazy as Black Friday in the U.S.  (There were no fist fights over merchandise!)

And, of course, the mall was decorated for Christmas.

However, we were not at the mall to buy Christmas gifts.  For some time I have been thinking about buying a new mattress for the apartment.  The bed in the guest bedroom is extremely low, and I figured if we put another mattress on top, it would be a normal height.  We figured that this would be a good time to buy one for a good price.  We went to four different mattress stores, a furniture store, and to Sears, and tested out the mattresses at all of the places.  The mattress that we both agreed upon was a Spring Air at the Atlas mattress store.

 As a part of their "Buen Fin" promotions, the price of the double mattress was reduced to the price of a single.  It will be delivered on Friday.  So, our "Buen Fin" mission was accomplished.

A Talented Marionette

You will find many street performers along the streets of downtown Mexico City.  I found this one especially imaginative.

The puppeteer was controlling the marionette to make it appear that it was painting a picture.  But wait a minute!  Look closely at the videos.  The puppet was not just going through the motions.  It was dipping its brush into the paint and actually doing a painting!

Painting the Olmecs

After visiting the exhibit on African art at the Anthropology Museum, I noticed that there was another small, temporary exhibit in an adjoining gallery.  It consisted of watercolors that depict monuments of the Olmecs, Mexico's oldest pre-Hispanic civilization.

The paintings all portray objects on display in the outdoor La Venta Museum in Villahermosa, the capital of the state of Tabasco.  

La Venta was an important center of the Olmec civilization around 900 BC.  It was excavated by archaeologists in 1925.  They thought at first that it was a Mayan site, but then realized that it belonged to a culture that pre-dated the Mayas by centuries.  In the 1950s, PEMEX, the Mexican petroleum monopoly, built a refinery nearby, threatening the archaeological site.  In 1951, poet Carlos Pellicer spearheaded a project to save the monuments of La Venta by moving thirty-six of them to an outdoor, jungle setting outside of Villahermosa.  Pellicer invited a friend of his, Miguel Angel Gómez Ventura, a doctor and talented painter, to do a series of watercolors of the Olmec objects as they were brought to the new museum.  Those paintings are now held by the Juárez University of Tabasco, but they are currently on display here in Mexico City for a limited time.

I visited the museum in Villahermosa many years ago, and I recognized the monuments depicted in some of the paintings.

The Olmecs are best known for their enormous stone heads.

Several steles, (an archaeological term for stone slabs erected as a monument) were moved to the museum.

A mosaic pavement

A number of monuments were thought to be altars, but now the consensus is that they served as thrones.

 This stone statue is know as "Juchimán".

I had no idea what that name meant.  I searched on the internet.  According to one story, an Englishman looked at the carving and said that it looked like a "watchman".  That got distorted into "juchimán".  I suppose that explanation is as good as any.

African Art

Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology is currently hosting a special exhibit of art from the African nation of the Ivory Coast.  Last week I went there to see the show.

The Ivory Coast (or Cote d'Ivoire in French, the official language) is a country with 68 different ethnic groups, each with its own language.  The rural population still follows animist beliefs, while the south is largely Christian and the north Moslem.  As a result there is a diversity of artistic traditions.

"Gba gba" masks are created by the Baule culture to use in dances for funerals and important events.

This double mask represents the sun and the moon as well as the duality of masculine and feminine.

This mask is topped with a mythological bird which is a symbol of fertility.

This feminine mask represents beauty and wisdom.

A large wooden carving of a boat with an oarsman, passengers, and a colonial official.

A carving of a "blolo".  The Baule people believe that from birth each person has a "blolo" or spouse that lives in an invisible, parallel world.

A wooden harps which includes a figure of a woman and child and a chameleon on the back.

This sculpture from the Attie culture of a woman may have stood at the entrance to a temple or the house of an important person.

This headress from the Senufo culture combines elements from various animals to symbolize power.

Masks such as this one were used by the Dan culture during the initiation ceremonies in which boys passed into manhood.

Masks such as this one from the Guro culture represented popular proverbs... in this case, "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil".

This mask would be worn by the person who had the responsibility to make sure that all domestic fires in the village had been put out after cooking... a safety measure in communities where houses had thatched roofs.

The black designs on this cotton fabric were created with a technique known as "painting the cloth with earth".   Fine gray dirt would be applied to the fabric.  It would oxidize the cotton, and after washing it would leave dark brown or black designs.

These and other objects from the Ivory Coast will be on display at the Anthropology Museum through December.