I am a museum person. I like art museums, history museums, natural history museums–the gamut. One of the perks of now living in DC is the plethora of museums. Of course, the current president is intentionally and perversely cherry picking their holdings to eliminate some Smithsonian content and”adjust” American history.

But museums not subject to presidential alteration can, and do, make the case for today’s threats to democracy. Clichés like “history repeats itself” and “life imitates art” and vice-versa become clichés because they are truthful. And two exhibits I saw recently testified to this truthfulness.

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Note: this blog post was started a couple of weeks ago, when RFK and vaccines were the “health” news of the day–before Tylenol and autism. It’s hard to keep up, among other hardships wrought by this crowd.

Eli and I recently visited the Renwick Gallery, a small gem that is part of the Smithsonian Institution and located across the street from the White House.

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Origin Story

Before World War I my relative Ayjzik Igra started an umbrella factory called Elegant in Sosnowiec, Poland. Sosnowiec is northwest of Krakow, which, in turn, is west and slightly north of Lviv, now in Ukraine, the area where my grandfather, Henry Grossman, was born as Heinrich Igra. They were cousins.  

There was a time when umbrellas were valued not just for protecting delicate complexions from sunlight and fine clothes from drenching rain–but as fashion items, especially for women, as much as were hats and gloves. Hand-made umbrellas such as Elegant’s were prized, and vintage versions can still be found online (see below). Apparently, the business was prized enough for a Nazi officer to take over the factory after the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Ayjzik and his wife died in a concentration camp. Most of their children survived, and three sons who had learned the trade from their father went into the umbrella business in Canada, Sweden, and Australia, respectively. Ultimately, the brothers in Montreal and Stockholm moved to Florida and prospered in real estate. 

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Adding Kangaroos to the Family

Mirah and Rivah wanted us to bring back live kangaroos from Australia. We all knew that wasn’t really going to happen–and they admitted beforehand any gifted kangaroos would be stuffed–but the conversation was a lot of fun.

First, we discussed how we’d bring them back on the airplane. Mirah had an answer for that: “Just put dresses on them, so they will look like real people.” The girls had names: Mirah’s would be Jesse Bailey, and Rivah’s, Rainbow Lola. So, while in Australia we told them we were interviewing kangaroos to see if any wanted to come and live with Mirah and Rivah. 

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Loving Australia!

After flying from Bangkok to Melbourne, we enmeshed ourselves in a new place! Virgin territory, as Eli says, for us as travelers, and our sixth continent. Our first scheduled trip to Australia, four years ago, was abruptly cancelled when Eli got sick in Beijing hours before we were to fly to Sydney. He admitted, as we were leaving Thailand, that he was superstitious about another plan to come here. So far, so good.

Melbourne Meets Milwaukee–or Milwaukee Meetup in Melbourne!

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Winter Break into Back to School 

Well, COVID cut into our winter break fun and usefulness, as we were out for the count much of the first week. But we managed to catch up a little between Christmas and the secular, calendar New Year. Rivah started back to preschool a couple of days before Mirah’s break was over. So, we had time for another sleepover, some shopping, and cookie baking.

Spritz Cookies

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