Let Them Eat Toast....Art Museum

Is that a chrome handbag in the foreground of this photo? Yes and no...it is, in fact, a "handbag toaster", one of the many charming toasters I viewed last night at The Columbia Museum of Art.

 

Here's a combination toaster and curling iron.  The gentleman who collects these, Dr. Ken Huggins, is pictured below at right.  He is supposed to have amassed the largest collection of toasters in the world.

He is also the best sort of collector, or dare I say, toaster anthropologist--for while he has a rather serious collection of bread-burning devices, he does not take himself seriously.  I laughed throughout his informative presentation.  I learned, among other things, that the Hotpoint clothing iron got its name because it was the first electric iron to have a hot point.  Indeed, I am so swept up by this toaster madness that I suggest you replace your turkey with a large platter of toast.  I would not be surprised to learn that Dr. Huggins has a toaster shaped like a turkey in which you could singe your slices.