Exit through the 9/11 Museum gift shop

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I mean, I don't know what's going on in your head or why you can't control-F four pages to see for yourself, but yeah, what I said is accurate.

[Jose]

Pal Joey, your lnk to the Daily News article goes instead to a photo of a revival cast of ON THE TOWN. I'm sure that was not your intention given the subject of this thread.

The Daily News article is linked below for the readers' convenience should you be absent from this thread for a while.


9/11 Museum, which sits on unidentified remains of attack victims, hosts alcohol-fueld party night before opening - Daily News

[PalJoey]

Fixed. I've got Yazbeck on my mind.

[FindingNamo]

In total sincerity I honestly don't know if a boozy Conde Nast party at the 9-11 Museum is a sign the terrorists lost or won.

[Jane2]

Neither. I'm just wondering if that will become one of the "in" places to have trendy parties!

[ghostlight2]

"I have to admit that since 9/11 happened, I always thought that NoTHING should be built there. It IS a cemetery after all."

Thousands are buried under Washington Square Park. Dogs crap on their graves daily. Are those people less worthy of respect because they died less tragically, or because we did not know them?

I watched the towers fall, and not on television. I lost many firefighter friends on 9/11. I don't think one of them would give a damn about a stupid gift shop. They would be pissed about the fact that the ever few remaining survivors are having difficulty getting the help they need to live with the conditions they contracted as a result of their heroics.

I haven't been to the gift shop, but if that's what they need to do to keep the museum going, fine. If those stuffed rescue dogs sets aside some money for those animals, even better. Many of those heroic animals died not long after their tour of duty after that horrible disaster.

I just refuse to have a knee-jerk reaction over a story printed in the New York Post. I want more information.

I keep seeing people printing something about "real human ash". If that's not true, people should stop saying that. It's more absurdly hyperbolically offensive than stuffed rescue dogs by a long shot.

[FindingNamo]

Okay, I'll go out on a limb and own this:

I feel as if this entire endeavor could have benefitted from humility, but all I sense is hubris. Now it's this ginormous institution with senior vice presidents of whoozits and whatzits and it's the public's responsibility to keep it open with its $upport.

[henrikegerman]

Part of me agrees with all of this outrage. Another part finds it even more profoundly disturbing given that American consumerism promotes virulent enmity toward America, including Islamic antiAmericanism and other militant forms of antiAmericanism that underscore terrorist acts against America.

And then when one considers the stuff made outside the U.S.. Could anything be more emblematic of globalism, exploitation of overseas labor, and outsourcing of what would otherwise be American labor? And how those facts fuel violent antiAmericanism.

Part of me is shocked the museum could have done this without expecting this kind of outrage.

But another part of me is numb; all of this makes perfect weltschmerz-comporting sense.

[Addison D.]

^^^ Yes.

From the most cynical, Orwellian point of view--the only POV that seems appropriate to me these days--nothing could be more apposite than a gift shop at Ground Zero, selling Chinese-made tchotchkes.

They could carve Bush 41's exhortation--mentioned earlier in this thread--to respond to terrorism by shopping into the granite wall of the entry to remind everyone that selling crap is, really, the ultimate triumph of the American Way.

[Jane2]

"If those stuffed rescue dogs sets aside some money for those animals, even better."

Does it?

[PalJoey]

They're selling a 9/11 cheese plate.

No, really.

[PalJoey]

No, REALLY. Gothamist has the story.
This 9/11 Cheese Plate May Be The 9/11 Museum's Most Tasteless Souvenir

[tazber]

Omg, with 3 little hearts where the planes went down.

Jesus.

[Addison D.]

That's just....surreal.

[SonofRobbieJ]

The John Waters part of me desperately wants that.

Ugh...no. I can't. Not even the John Waters part of me can deal with this.

WHAT KIND OF COCKTAIL PARTIES ARE YOU HAVING THAT YOU WILL SERVE A NICE DUBLINER AND A SMOKED GOUDA OFF OF A GODDAMN 9/11 CHEESE PLATE?????

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

If that cheese helps a family heal, who are you to judge?! Stop calling these people "evil"!!!

[Reginald Tresilian]

Robbie, I imagine you'd serve only American cheese on that platter.

[SonofRobbieJ]

I've taken to calling brie 'freedom cheese'.

[Marianne2]

Eww. Some of this stuff is just getting more and more disturbing.

Honestly, I would feel more comfortable about the search and rescue dog merchandise if it was directly coming from the groups themselves. Like it could be a main fundraiser for them, but donate some of the money to the museum. Then it could help both causes. It also wouldn't necessarily have to be associated only with 9/11 since those animals are doing other work as well.

[SonofRobbieJ]

^ We could all probably come up with many, many ways in which selling this merchandise would feel less icky. The buyer for the 9/11 Bric-a-Brac/Knick-a-Knack shop apparently couldn't.

[DottieD'Luscia]

I'd love to know at what meetings these people came up with some of this stuff. "A cheese plate with heart indications where the planes went down, hey yea, that sounds like a brilliant idea!!"

[NYadgal]

Holy hell.

[doodlenyc]

It reminds me of The Golden Girls when Sophia describes getting a nativity cheese plate from her son, Phil.

"I'm catholic! I cant spread a wise man on a ritz crackah!"

[SonofRobbieJ]

A CHEESE PLATE!

(I may never get over this)

[Jane2]

^ And not even a decent one at that!

[morosco]

D.C. looks like it's placed a little too far North on that cheese plate.