Okay, this is like, so cool. No, it's way beyond cool. It's like five degrees Kelvin. And it was totally unexpected. But first, a little background. In two parcels:
Parcel A: Hadrosaurus Foulkii was the first reasonably complete dinosaur skeleton ever found. It was found in a marl pit close to Haddonfield, NJ in 1858 and is now on permanent display at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Which is where I volunteer and clean dinosaur bones and talk with visitors to the museum. The Academy recently did a beautiful job of giving the animal its own exhibit, replete with all sorts of valuable background information. Click here: http://www.levins.com/dinosaur.shtml for more information about the critter.
Parcel B: When I tell people that I'm currently offering dinosaur lectures and juggling performances, they ask me: "What do these two things have in common?" or something like that. Or else they just stare at me for a while as if I'm a bit too weird to believe.
So here's what's so cool: today, the Curator of Dinosaurs at the Academy sidled up to me and asked if I would like to juggle for the museum's Paleopalooza extravaganza, which takes place in mid-February.
Aaaaand what do you suppose the Curator has in mind for me to juggle?
Hmmmm?
Anyone who did not answer "Dinosaur Bones!!" please go back up this posting and read the two Parcels shown above.
The Curator plans to make castings of three or more bones from the Hadrosuarus fossils specifically for me to juggle. At Paleopalooza. (Juggling the real bones is, of course, out of the question!) He and I went to Hadrosaurus display to figure out which bones would work best. (We chose three caudal vertebrae and either a radius or ulna.) He will do one casting to confirm size and weight, then go for the entire set.
He's very excited about this. I'm very excited about this. I hope that you are very excited about this. And I will, of course, let you know more about this as we get closer to Paleopalooza time.
I don't know what I could possibly have done to deserve this.
If I knew, I would do it more often.
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Wow! Big time! Hope Deb will be there with the video camera.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
Sue
Your are attracting these cool expereinces by your very being! Let me know when the Paleopalooza is. If I cannot come to Phila. for it, I'm sure Cecelia and her kids would LOVE to be there, so I could kind of be there "by proxy"! I DO think this is SO VERY COOL!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Diane
Such a wonderful story, it made me laugh out loud, and I've been smiling ever since--something about the way the guy sidles up is utterly perfect, and then, you know, I bet Frosty and Rudolph are SOOOO jealous!
ReplyDeleteEileen
Very cool!!! Who'd have thought??!!- if you need some "dinosaur eggs" I can loan them to you as well- they are oversize easter eggs for lawn decorating- they might be hard ot juggle but would work well fo a sight gag.
ReplyDeleteEllen
That is the BEST! You too :)
ReplyDeleteGwenn
. . . And the Davis' are very excited about this. Wonderful! We look forward to the event.
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