National 9/11 Museum Sells Awful 9/11 Cheese Plate Souvenir

Aside from mild tackiness, there’s nothing wrong with a cheese plate shaped like the United States, until you find the three small hearts on it representing the locations targeted in the 9/11 attacks. You almost put the gouda where?!

Since it opened last week, the National 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York has offered visitors “the story of Sept. 11 . . . presented with dignity, beauty, and bottomless grief.” And, it turns out, some pretty damn offensive souvenirs. Keychains, mugs, bracelets, t-shirts, blankets — all typical museum fare, sure, but this time, tinged with a fresher sense of anguish and outrage.

“They’re down there selling bracelets; they’re making money off my dead son,” 9/11 firefighter father Jim Riches said in the Washington Post.

The 9/11-themed cheese plate might not be the crassest among the gift shop’s collection — which the self-supporting, nonprofit museum needs to pay operating expenses, along with its $24 admission fee — but it is probably the least sensical. It’s nice to show your solidarity with a “9/11 Honor and Remember” t-shirt. Spilling drops of Malbec over where the World Trade Center used to be, maybe not so much.

H/T Washington Post + PicThx Gothamist