Random Europe: what a trip!

My daughter, and HER daughter, and her son and her husband, just flew in from London - and boy, are their wings tired! It was a whirlwind couple of weeks in five countries, and I won't begin to describe what is what, but you can take a guess and probably be right. The last shot kind of says it all. 

PUGGLES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cluck off!

It's all in your brain: PAREIDOLIA!

Seeing faces in inanimate objects and patterns is known as face pareidolia
The phenomenon is common, but little is known about why it happens
Researchers analyzed brain responses to seeing faces in patterns
Response originates in the frontal cortex and travels to the visual cortex
Findings suggest humans have evolved to recognize facial shapes due to their importance in social interactions 

Sublime and surreal: Harold Lloyd art gifs!

 

Cat squash

Is this the world's worst wax museum?

So did you honestly think Madame Tussaud's cornered the market on celebrity waxworks? Guess again.

There's this place. This shabby little English museum that looks like it should be IN a museum, or else a mausoleum.The brochure informs us:

It was named after the great grandson of Madame Tussaud, the founder of the famous waxworks museum in London in 1835.

The Great Yarmouth museum’s website describes it as 'different from many wax museums, in that it remembers the stars and famous people as they were at their height of fame and influence.'

It adds: 'See your gallery of how people looked, how the passionate owners captured them at this time and preserved them for your enjoyment. Many wax museum (sic) update their models to keep the realistic to reflect the current looks or styles.

'If you are looking back to the 70s, so (sic) the stars as they were. Nostalgia and memories. Show your grand children the stars and leaders during your generation and help us bring the museum to life.'

"Museum" and "life" aren't usually used in the same sentence, but there you are. I doubt if Louis Tussaud (the Tussaud that nobody talks about) had much to do with the design of these things. I'm not going to tell you who they all are, of course! There are too many of them, and some simply confound me. As with bad taxidermy, bad waxworks are meant to be cringeworthy, provoking uneasy laughter and memories of Vincent Price melting down girls in his giant vat of paraffin. 

What I love most of all is that all the photos are exactly the same size, so I could make a gif of them in about twelve seconds. Thank you, Louis Tussaud!

But keep in mind there are (were - the place experienced a meltdown and had to close a couple of years ago) a purported 150 figures in this place, and I've only shown you 36. 

The torture chambers sound like the most interesting feature of the exhibit. Pity we'll never get to experience them.