Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few – I’m sorry. That phrase is becoming really overused, isn’t it? It’s also offensive, because some people still live in caves.

So unless you’ve been dead in a cave for the past several weeks, you’ve been celebrating the current LSA theme semester. Wait – you don’t know what the current LSA theme semester is? You don’t CARE about the current LSA theme semester? And your dog died in a cave last week?

Well, I’m sorry. Not about your dog, but about your failure to take advantage of this semester’s theme, which is: old stuff. To be precise, the theme is “Meaningful Objects: Museums in the Academy,” and it’s really been going on since last semester. To those readers who have visited the museums on campus already, congratulations and proceed to the crossword. Why are you reading this anyway, since you go to museums and just know everything, huh?

Of course, a lack of knowledge and/or interest concerning theme semesters is more common. This is due to three main reasons:

1. There is not enough publicity about theme semesters.

2. Theme semesters can sometimes be more boring than “The Notebook.”

3. Maybe something to do with MSA. Dang you, MSA!

Let’s address the first two points. It’s true that there hasn’t been much of a media frenzy about “Meaningful Objects,” and we at the Daily would like to apologize for that. We did finally get around to publishing a nice article about the Museum Studies minor (Declaring Docent, 02/01/2010), but that’s only one article.

However, our sister paper The New York Times has NOT been pulling its weight, either. For instance, I searched “Michigan Daily theme semester” on its website and got zero articles for the past month. Astonished, I searched “Michigan Daily” and also got no results. So I clicked “All Results Since 1851” for the Daily and got the shockingly low figure 249. More articles have been written about the dung beetle (288). What gives, New York Times? We write about you!

Anyway, I’m trying to raise museum awareness in today’s column because I’d hate to see “Meaningful Objects” fall under point two from above. In fact, when anyone says to me, “Before graduating you need to (go to a hockey game/go to Ashley’s/get a life),” I remind them that they need to visit the Exhibit Museum of Natural History. Or the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Or the University of Michigan Museum of Art. We have lots of museums on campus. There is even a dentistry museum. You might want to skip the dentistry museum, but still.

However, I have the suspicion that many students regard museums as uncool, because you usually can’t drink beer, listen to rap music or bench-press inside of them. But that’s just a stereotype! And vague arguments aside — such as how they give us the opportunity to “connect” with our “past” and “learn” about our “future,” or are an essential part of a “liberal arts education” — museums can simply be fun. At the Exhibit Museum alone you can: 1) look at dinosaurs, including a T-Rex, and big mastodons, 2) learn that “mastodons” is Latin for “nipple-teeth,” 3) see a planetarium show and remember how utterly insignificant you and your homework are in relation to the universe and 4) make nipple-teeth jokes.

At the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology you can look at treasure all day long — and who doesn’t like treasure?

And UMMA – well, UMMA is just in a class by itself. There’s just so much art. Even if you don’t like art, there’s art there for you. The best part is feeling like you’re in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

So try to get to at least one museum, because they’re pretty underappreciated, and if this theme semester doesn’t generate more interest in them, the University will begin to tear them down. Okay, I made that up, but one wonders how long a dentistry museum can last.

The point is, really, to think outside of your routine — your cave. The University has many options. Take a class on a subject you’re unfamiliar with. Attend a speech over the weekend. Read The Michigan Review. Well, no on that last one. Look, just head over to the Exhibit Museum to see some nipple-teeth before you graduate, okay?

Will Grundler can be reached at wgru@umich.edu.