... which is inscribed on a wall at the American Museum of Natural History. And even though I went there today, it is not one of the answers to the question posed in the previous post. I've been to this museum many times. And I did way too much today, but if a 7-year-old boy can do it, I will do it.
But here's another thing to occupy your mind. Here are the white rhinos (diorama style):
Now, look at those nostrils and think of them as mouths. What freaky alien creatures!
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17 comments:
Batshit. Crazy.
'Nuff said.
This is my 20 year-old’s most bestest favorite museum, just a tich/ titch? above all the wonderful art museums. Visitors to the city always get taken here for hours and then to the park for a picnic on some rock ledge and wafting music from someone’s guitar, sitar or sabar.
Rhinos must look at our nostrils and think we’re gill breathers.
What the hell is batshit crazy about this post? You can't see how the nostrils are so big and placed such they do resemble mouths?
Do you totally lack imagination? Or are you just that narrow-visioned (-minded)? What a dank, dark place the world must be for you. How sad.
Its interesting that they picked those particular TR quotes. Hard to say much since I agree with everything written.
And TR made a hundred quotable quotes. How about:
"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!"
"Don't flinch, don't foul. But Hit the line hard."
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
I think Nixon in his farewell speech in 1974.
"Manly", "courage", "self-mastery", "hard work", "character"?? What do these archaic notions have to do with our post-modern, egalitarian world? These words should be stricken from our language; they will only coufuse our youth.
Excellent.
One shudders to think what almost any contemporary school board in the nation would do to shut up T.R. were he a parent commenting upon the curricula.
And speaking of the American Museum of Natural History, the Stiller movie (w/Owen Wilson, fyi) "Night at the Museum" is cute, esp. for kids under 13, per Theo.
Ruth,
Thanks for the link; what a great site!
What freaky alien creatures!
I tend to think of such creatures as proof of God's magnificent sense of humor.
There's a fantastic Roosevelt monument on Roosevelt island, in DC. You walk through the park for a bit, and you come on this clearing with a gigantic statue of Roosevelt in a dramatic pose, with all those very Rooseveltian slogans around him: Youth! Manhood! Vigor! Or something like that. It would seem a bit cheesy if we were to put romantic slogans like that up in the modern day, so we can thank our forefathers for doing it for us.
It's alarming for some when talk about "game" is mixed in with talk about serious things (like killing people in a war).
However, for the people who actually run around and shoot people, their training is a bunch of games. Game metaphors come to them naturally (and probably make the whole running-around-shooting-people thing a little more understandable)
I know that great quotation from Franklin Roosevelt etched in marble in the Sony museum that starts: "I want to see your Play Stations"...or perhaps it's from John Madden's hall of fame speech...I forget.
The world of the rhino must indeed be quite alien to ours. Where our world is defined by the visual, their world is defined foremost by smell (they can smell better than dogs) and by the auditory (they can hear about as well as any mammal except bats). It is hard to imagine what our world would be like, defined primarily by smells and sound.
All I can think is that in my recollection of New York, that would be an almost Hellish place if your world was primary auditory and olfactory. In that way, rhinos experiences are wholly alien to our own.
From the New York Times, Dec 22, 2008:
A few weeks ago I took my 12-year-old son, Joshua, to the Museum of Natural History. While we were waiting to get tickets, I pointed out the inspiring quotations by Theodore Roosevelt that line the upper walls of the Roosevelt Memorial rotunda. The one over the ticket counter concludes: "Courage, hard work, self-mastery and intelligent effort are all essential to successful life."
I mentioned that I didn't see anything in the quotation about television.
Joshua responded quickly that it did say something about Game Boys.
Sure enough, the opening line is, "I want to see you game, boys."
He thought maybe it was supposed to be "your Game Boys." Not exactly the kind of father-son moment I had in mind.
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