Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Fossil Braggery



Dr. Donald Johanson had just come out with a new book and he was holding a signing at a store in Scottsdale so off I went, with my young one in tow. There was a group of about thirty or so people there, most of whom had the air of academia about them. My child was the only sixth-grader among the crowd.

During his talk Dr. Johanson must've noticed how my little bowl of shrimp was doing because he drew the audience's attention to the pictures and illustrations in the book, much on behalf of my dear one. Afterwards when we went up to his table to get our copy of Lucy's Legacy autographed, he asked shrimpbowl if they were interested in human origins and to my dismay, they answered, "my dad just made me come here." Ouch.

Then in the days and months that followed, shrimpbowl read the book. They carried it everywhere in their school knapsack. I was not allowed to take it to read for myself. They learned how to recognize various hominid species by being shown drawings of their skulls. Homo floresiensis is their favorite now and shrimpbowl wants to study at the Institute of Human Origins when they grow up.

Anyways, I e-mailed Dr. Johanson this story and he very graciously wrote back that same day, inviting shrimpbowl to come visit the Institute anytime. And we shall do so very soon after we get back on the mainland. Right now, we are still here on The Big Island. Yesterday we watched whales swim by.

1 comment:

wstachour said...

It all looks like paradise!

I'd love to read Lucy's Legacy. I'll add it to my list.