Invasion of the Bloodsuckers: Bedbugs and Beyond
Through Jan. 8
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
203-432-5050; peabody.yale.edu
A larger-than-life bedbug
Six cat-sized models greet you as you enter: a bedbug, a mosquito,
a flea, a tick and lice of both the head and pubic persuasions, in
all their True Blood glory. More fun awaits, including a history of
the evolution of bloodsucking insect mouthparts (who knew that
dinosaurs had ticks and lice?), information on how to tell the six featured
insects from impostor bugs, even an interactive touch-screen game where
kids identify the creatures buzzing and crawling around a bedroom and
then zap them. There also are live colonies of mosquitoes and bedbugs.
“We’re working with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Department,”
deputy museum director Jane Pickering assures us. “The containers are
triple-sealed and there’s no chance at all of anything getting out.”
Photograph of
the celebratory
banquet for
the mortgage
burning of
Ebenezer
Baptist Church,
Providence,
R.I., May 27,
1957. Collection of Robb
Dimmick.
PROVIDENCE
Creative Survival: African American Foodways in Rhode Island
Sept. 22–March 4; Providence
Culinary Arts Museum, Johnson & Wales University, 401-598-2805; culinary.org
The first black Rhode Islanders were slaves who
had to feed white people while their own bodies
adjusted to drastically di;erent diets. But out of
these awful beginnings sprang a vibrant culi-
nary culture that, among other things, led to the
invention of johnnycake, the Colonial cornbread
staple. Some leaders included a Newport slave
who became Rhode Island’s top pastry chef (she
baked for George Washington), Newport restau-
rateur George Downing (whose oyster specialties
included poached turkey stu;ed with the local
bivalves), and two Providence men who jumped
on the “spoon mania” of the 19th century and pat-
ented a spoon design commemorating Frederick
Douglass. The exhibit also features menus, reci-
pes, dishes and utensils.
