site: reviews — Tropfsteinmaschine, Clasica Camper, Moist Towelette Museum (graduate from finds)

2026-07-16 02:13:01 -04:00
parent 8a538c57b5
commit 8ed824fb88
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@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ name: "Clasica Fiberglass Camper Trailer"
 subtitle: "A 1,200-pound camper built in the spirit of 1970s European caravans"
 date: 2026-07-16
 shortlist: true
+promotedTo: clasica-fiberglass-camper-trailer
 link: "https://www.clasicacampers.com/"
 linkText: "clasicacampers.com"
 source: "Gear Patrol"
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ source: "Kottke.org"
 topics: [words-and-humor, history-and-archives]
 tags: [museum, ephemera, collection]
 description: "Curator John French's earnest online (and real, in East Lansing) museum of vintage moist-towelette packaging — Lufthansa, KFC, Star Trek tie-ins — cataloguing decades of donations with a straight face."
+promotedTo: moist-towelette-online-museum
 ---

 John French has spent decades collecting moist towelettes — from Lufthansa, KFC, British Airways, and a set of Star Trek tie-ins captioned "Live long and prosper!" — and cataloguing them with the earnestness of a real institution, because it is one: the museum has a physical home in Room 100 of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, open Tuesday through Friday. The site still lists a DIY towelette recipe (witch hazel, glycerine, paper towels) for anyone who runs out.
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ source: "Atlas Obscura"
 topics: [design-and-art, travel-and-places]
 tags: [installation-art, germany]
 description: "A self-powered basement installation at Hamburg's Kunsthalle, dripping rainwater into a stalactite-stalagmite pair since 1996, built to run until 2496."
+promotedTo: tropfsteinmaschine-hamburg
 ---

 In a basement machine room at Hamburg's Kunsthalle, sealed off behind a diagonal glass wall, rainwater collected from the museum roof filters through a foyer planter and drips through a capillary system onto a stone slab below — slowly depositing calcium into the paired shape of a stalactite and stalagmite. Bogomir Ecker started the machine on December 19, 1996, self-powered by nothing but water and gravity, and built to keep dripping at roughly 10 millimeters of growth per century until the year 2496.