Confluence

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.

Blanche Update #2

Many of you will -- I hope -- recall that last summer, my ever-so-thoughtful sister sent Deb and me a beautiful orchid with pure white blossoms. As is our habit, we gave the plant a name: Blanche.

Blance luxuriated on our porch for the last half of the summer and all of the fall. During this time, she produced several new blossoms, for a grand total of ten: five per branch on each of her two stems.

In late summer or early fall, Blanche withdrew her support for each of the blossoms -- gradually over the course of several days -- from the distal to the proximal end of each branch. She then withdrew her support from each of the two branches, while growing a new branch on each stem.

She then produced five new blossoms on each of her two new branches. And they were every bit as lovely as the original set of ten.

We have, of course, brought Blanche inside as the weather got colder, and now have her sitting in the light from a south-facing window, to keep her four large, still-healthy leaves properly nourished with sunlight.

Several weeks ago, Blanche decided to withdraw support from the second set of ten blossoms. This leaves her looking rather austere, but still healthy, and the memory of her beautiful blossoms remains vivid in our memories.

And just the other day, she started growing a new branch on one of the two stems. So we may get yet another set of blossoms sometime in the next month or so. But we're not placing any goals or expectations on her. She is now, as she has always been, a splendid addition to our house.

Just as she is. Just as she decides to be.

Joke #1

(With the understanding that there may or may not be a Joke #2 in the future of this blog.)

I was performing somewhere recently (can't for the life of me recall where) when this lady came up to me and -- with no encouragement on my part -- told me the following joke. She insisted that she made it up herself.

The joke coincides so much with my sense of what's funny that I wanted to share it with all of you:

This chicken goes into a bar and walks up to the bartender.

The barkeep asks, "What can I do for you?"

The chicken says, "I hope you can help me. I've forgotten the punchline to this joke."

The bartender says, "Hmmm... I think you'd better ask at the other bar in town."

Chicken says, "Okay, I will. Where's the other bar?"

Barkeep says, "It's just over there. On the other side of the road."