To a Miniature World

 

A Thorne Room—no  bad news here.

 

 

 

By Megan McKinney

 

Last week we traveled back to a time when reading the morning newspaper could be diverting—almost fun. We visited an issue of Chicago Tribune in which the most disturbing story on Page One all week was about an animal sneaking out of its cage at the Lincoln Park Zoo and lumbering down a corridor to the kitchen.     

It’s bad enough to walk around wearing a mask all day, but to have to read on and on about our masked reality—and heaven knows what else–before dawn  is an unsettling way to begin a new morning. What could possibly happen next? Well,  a return of winter. Not just a return of winter, but winter without a place to escape—as the newspapers keep reminding us. There’s not a single warm, sunny spot in the world to get away from bad news. Even harmless New Zealand has newspapers and probably cable news as well.

Escape with us to a world without a pandemic, a world without politics, a world without blizzards and a world without newspapers that explore it all in excruciating detail. We’re talking about the miniature world.

Here’s another of Mrs. Thorne’s rooms. Do you see The New York Times or Fox News?

No Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times at this palatial address.

Here is Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, designed and built for the wife of King George V.  It was the most complete dolls’ house in the world at the time, but it didn’t subscribe to The Times, Evening Standard or even the Daily Mail.

No paper boy ever visited this house of Queen Mary.

What could be more fabulous than Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House? It’s right here in Chicago, Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle in The Museum of Science and Industry.

Do you see anybody reading the Tribune or Sun-Tiimes in the elegant Fairy Castle bed?

In case you want to be certain there is no hidden Fairy Castle CNN blaring away or tiny Tribune stuck under a chair in this sumptuous room, The Museum of Science and Industry re-opens today.  We could all go down there this afternoon to see for ourselves.

 

Edited by Amanda K. O’Brien

Author Photo by Robert F. Carl