Ripley's Believe It or . . . NOT!

I am generally a person that is easily pleased. I walk out of the show that everyone hated and remember the good things about it. I don't mind that the steak was flavorless. I even can find a use for that tacky birthday sweater (I can layer it!). Ripley's Believe it or Not on 42nd street was very much the exception. Wow, folks. It was lame. I mean L-A-M-E, lame. I walked through and kept looking for it to build to some fabulous exhibit that was worth my $29. It never happened. I was so disappointed. Please, people, PLEASE don't waste your money. 

Last night, Victor and I decided to have an evening of blog research together, so I let him suggest something new to do. After nixing the Museum of Sex, we decided on Ripley's. I had passed the joint practically every day and wondered what was in the museum, so I was actually looking forward to quenching my curiosity. We went in, paid the admission, and started through the exhibits. First, we passed the world's tallest man. Well, it wasn't the world's tallest man. It was a wax replica of someone that was as tall as the world's tallest man. We were then forced to take an awkward picture with said wax figure (we were told we could buy a copy at the end). After taking another picture in what I called the "Chip cart" (inside Beauty and the Beast joke), we moseyed up to where we thought the real exhibit was. We then walked past the world's largest (widest as opposed to tallest) man. Well, not the actual world's largest man, but a replica of what the world's largest man would look like. Then we passed the gun that Booth used to shoot Lincoln. Well, not the actual gun, but it was the gun that was on Booth's person when he was arrested. So . . . it wasn't really the gun that shot Lincoln, but some people thought it was for a short time. There seemed to be a reoccurring theme. And it wasn't good.

Now, I did learn some interesting facts, but nothing I couldn't have found on the internet. The only difference being in the museum was that the facts were just illustrated in a large and REALLY fake way. And what wasn't fake . . . was a little gross. After a few rooms of non-exhibits, we came upon a human hair exhibit. Look, here was a lock of Elvis' hair in a petri dish! And a few of Washington's white locks were displayed beside it. Next to that were a few from Kennedy's deceased head. I, first, found that I was a little appalled at the display and then started to wonder how they procured said hair. Did someone send Mr. Ripley dead people's hair? Did he have an inside man in the coroner's department in LA and DC? Did a coroner's office even exist when Washington died? Did I really CARE?!?! No. We moved on to the shrunken head exhibit. All's I'm going to say was it was equally as charming.

All in all, it was an interesting evening and I did sooth my curiosity about Ripley's Believe it or Not. I'm a little disgruntled that we paid almost 60 bones for it, but you live and you learn. And you blog. So, if you are under eight years old or a shrunken head aficionado, bust a move. Otherwise, save your dough.