Do You Know the Mustard Man?

On October 28th, 1986, Barry Levinson watched aghast as his beloved team, the Boston Red Sox, lost the World Series. Distraught and sleepless, he wandered into an all-night grocery store where he felt the mustard section of the condiments aisle calling to him, "If you collect us, they will come."

Since then, the former Wisconsin assistant attorney general has switched his legal briefs for thousands of mustards, and mustard paraphernalia, which make up his Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb. The seedy facility just celebrated its 15th year, and is one of the area's main attractions for locals and tourists.

Levinson and his wife, Patty, say they meet mustard afficionados from across the world. They even got on The Oprah Winfrey show (Oprah's favorite mustard is a dijon walnut mustard called Laurent DuClos). Levinson says mustard is a univeral, time-honored condiment that is even featured in Shakespeare's writings.

Beyond the usual mayhem at the Mustard Museum (they also host America's mustard college, Poupon U.) the annual National Mustard Day is held the first Saturday of every August outside their premises. The event features live music, mustard-games, and free hot dogs - well, free as long as they have mustard on them, Levinson explains. If you want ketchup, it's a ten-dollar surcharge.