Image: The late toothpaste inventor, David Webster and myself at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.

Many years ago during a random trip to an antique mall in Kansas City, I accidentally came across a book, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology.

The cover and title were terribly fascinating, so I immediately began reading what I thought was a book of fiction. About halfway through it, I came to understand that this book was non-fiction! At that time (and even now), I was gripped by an insatiable desire for absurdity and wonder. This book solidified many of my dreams and made me realize that it is possible to build a world that makes sense only to a handful of people.

Image Source

As usual, I was flat broke when I discovered that I had to get to Los Angeles to visit The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Within a few short months, my entire existence became super-focused on getting to LA, so I began looking for opportunities. I received a newsletter for Taschen Books, and one day I found a contest in it. The prize was a trip to Los Angeles.

I spent the next 4 months doing research for this Taschen Publishing contest called Schlaupelz. The contest was as follows: whoever could name the sources, both the title and author, for all 200 images that were contained in a collage would win. Whoever submitted the correct answers, won a trip to LA for 2 for a week, all expenses paid. Even though everyone around me did not believe I could win it because it was an international online contest, I did. The reason was simple: after glancing at the collage, I already knew about 20 of the sources, so I figured if I did enough research, I'd be able to find the rest.

Image Source: collage I made for Interesting Engineering

The moment I stepped inside MJT, I felt like I was entering a church created specifically for the curious people of the world. I've never felt that any church was made specifically for me since I'm an atheist, but this was it. I dislike the trite expression, 'it felt magical' but that is exactly what it was: pure magic.

My brain salivated on every museum exhibit, but there were a few that held my mind hostage: The Microminiatures of Hagop Sandaldjian, the African Stink Ant, The Garden of Eden on Wheels and Geoffrey's Sonnabend's Obliscence - Theories of Forgetting and the Problem of Matter.

After Googling Geoffrey Sonnabend, I couldn't figure out if he was a real person or just a figment of David Wilson's imagination. This was the case with many of the exhibits, it turned out. I thought it very curious that Sonnabend believed that:

"Forgetting,....not remembering is the inevitable outcome of all experience."

Why would someone spend their energy on devising a way to prove that we forget most of our experiences?

Absurd.

I loved it. I was hooked!

Image: California Through My Lens

When I left the museum, I told David Wilson, the director, that I felt like I had finally found my church. He then told me a story about a man who had recently visited his museum:

"The man entered the Marcel Proust madeleine-soaked-in-tea exhibit and promptly got on his knees and began to sob. He walked up to David after he had composed himself and said, 'Thank you for building my church'."

But my favorite thing about discovering the Museum of Jurassic Technology is that I found it by accident, while following my insatiable curiosity. It's the same reason I found Steemit: I'm in search of mysteries.

This relates also to the motto of MJT:

"...guided along as it were
a chain of flowers into
the mysteries of life."

My advice to first-time visitors:

If you visit the museum, go upstairs and get served free Russian tea cookies and samovar drinks by a European host while you pet a small, manicured dog.

ps- This was originally posted on my website: http://leahstephens.weebly.com/blog/killing-certainty-at-the-museum-of-jurassic-technology Although I have added new details and photos, rearranging the story a bit.