Getting the flavor of...Visiting Einstein’s brain

Visiting Einstein’s brain

America’s oldest medical museum just might make you sick, said Diane Stoneback in the Allentown, Pa., Morning Call. Now celebrating its 150th anniversary, the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia houses a collection of human remains that barely begins with its 139 chill-inducing skulls. Wander among its old-world displays and you’ll also encounter a 70-pound ovarian cyst, the ballooned abdomen of a freak-show attraction known as the Wind Bag, and the liver that was shared by the conjoined twins Chang and Eng. Visitors have been rediscovering the Mütter’s marvels since Albert Einstein’s brain arrived in 2011—actually, 46 pieces of the great physicist’s brain, mounted on microscope slides. Curators regularly mount temporary exhibits, while a cellphone tour tests users on how well they can “read” skeletons for sex, age, and possible maladies. Whether you’re fascinated or horrified, the experience is unforgettable

Snowmobiling to Canada

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I’ve remembered why I live in New England during winter—“to play outdoors,” said Stephen Jermanok in The Boston Globe. Recently, I spent a weekend crossing from Maine into Canada on a snowmobile, grinning the whole way. Northern Maine is home to a 2,300-mile network of well-marked snowmobile paths; I hopped onto my Ski-Doo on Main Street in the town of Presque Isle and was off. Within minutes, “I was immersed in a wonderland of snow-covered fields, forest, and mountains,” on my way to a fish-chowder lunch at a stopover on the shores of Portage Lake. At the end of the day, I left my Maine guide behind at the border crossing on the other side of the St. John River and shook hands with my New Brunswick guru. Morning found us racing along logging roads and railroad corridors through dense forest. We turned for home after lunch in a French-Canadian village and took the last leg at a 60-mph clip. “All was bliss.”