I went over to the Page Museum this morning to get a look at some of the fossils they pulled out from underneath the May Company parking lot.
I got a handful of blurry, underexposed photos with my phone. They’re here.
On a side note, why is it the tourists always come up to me and ask me to explain things? I was just minding my own business reading the latest issue of Natural History near Pit 91, not bothering a soul or looking at all intelligent. Always, ALWAYS happens. Weird.
It’s the beard. Guaranteed.
I can leave a subway station I’ve never been to in a city I’ve never been to, and, as I’m pausing and trying to orient myself, sure as shooting, somebody will come up to me and ask for directions!
Just as Thomas Friedman has his Moustache of Enlightenment, you have the Beard of Scientific Mastery.
Or an intent look.
Or you’re non-threatening.
What was the occasion with the Page Museum? Were the parking lot fossils an extra find?
Love the Page. Used to take field trips there when I adjuncted at UCLA. The wall of Dire Wolf skulls never failed to mesmerize me (and set me to singing ‘please don’t murder me’)
chris, you will just have to face up to the fact you not only care about natural history, but look like somebody who does. which cap were you wearing that morning? or maybe it was the reading material that gave you away?
my mother used to work at that may company store, before i was born. the next-closest she ever got to natural history was the odd trip to the LA zoo, which she didn’t like much but she could pass us off as wild animals, i guess.
i ask about caps because the first time i saw you in person, i knew it was you because of the cap. something to do with yuccas.
Megan beat me to it. Beards in museums and national parks are a signal to tourists: here is a dude who knows outdoorsy biology stuff.
That and khaki hats/vests.