To Really be Human

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, me & the family packed up & headed to Toronto to avoid the ridiculous shopping frenzy in the states. We have made this an annual event for the past 4 years & it is one of best vacations. Why, rooms are cheaper & the crowds are almost non-existent as compared to our summer trip there. Our vacations seem to revolve around eating & this trip was now exception, we start out by going to La Bâton Rouge for dinner on Friday, a fast food lunch on Saturday afternoon (I usually get the hot Italian sausages from the street vendors), followed by dinner @ Golden Thai, then Sunday brunch at the Hot House Café. Everything we do between meals is just an added bonus.

The funny thing out the culinary part of this trip was the fact the best meal I think we had was at Popeyes Famous Chicken. I tell you this fuckin’ chicken was off the chain, I had a 3 piece spicy (1 breast & 2 wings) with red beans & rice & coleslaw. One thing I will admit was that I was turned off when a Crack-Head approached me & asked for some money to get a piece of chicken, which really tripped the kids out. Anyway after all of the drama & good eatin’ we were off the Ontario Science Centre to enjoy the rest of the day as we learned, but I was really hoping that we could see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. My hesitation about seeing it was not the fact that it was a showing of actual human bodies & organs etc, but it was the price. To get in I would cost us 80 bucks, granted it was Canadian so it would really on be about 68 US that is still a lot of money. When we got there Suite Suzy did the math & figured that it would be more cost effective to buy a 1 year membership & as we all know membership has its own privileges. Not any reading this cares but now we can:

• FREE admission to permanent and select temporary Exhibitions at the Ontario Science Centre
• 50% OFF parking during visits to the Ontario Science Centre
• 50% OFF regularly priced single tickets to the OMNIMAX® Theatre
• No reservation fees when booking IMAX® Dome tickets in advance by phone
• Invitations to Members' Previews of select exhibitions
• 10% DISCOUNT at the Ontario Science Centre gift store
• FREE admission to over 250 science centres worldwide

On to Body Worlds 2, which happens to be the 2nd installment of the touring exhibit. If you have been watching or reading news you may have heard of this controversial show that exposes every thing in, on, & about the human body. The controversy comes from pieces such as a man carrying his own skin (based on a 16th century drawing by Gaspar Becerra); a man on horseback holding his brain in one hand, the horse's brain in the other; or a man kneeling in prayer, holding his heart in his hands. These are seen by some as denigrating the deceased. Further there have been allegations that some of the bodies used were those of executed Chinese prisoners. These have been backed up by documents from the corpse-processing facility in Dalian, in northeastern China.

The Toronto exhibition displays whole body specimens that reveal bones, muscles, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, organs, & privates. In addition they have Embryos, fetuses and a pregnant woman who died with her fetus in her womb for those brave enough to want to see it. All of the bodies ect are preserved using a method called plastination which can tack any where from 1 to 3 months depending on the size of the body (the horse & man display took 3 years to complete).

The kids seemed to really dig the exhibit & did not think it was gory at all, in fact they asked many great questions about the bodies. One thing Suite Suzy & I were happy about was that they did not comment or notice the penises which were all over the place. After the exhibit we saw a great IMAX movie (Human Body), which I struggled to stay awake in. All of this science really helped to work up my appetite, so of to Golden Thai to set it off like a MUTHA! Fat Boy Out…