Dem Bones
I was admiring the “doggiesaurus” dinosaur picture my 5 year old created in preschool today, as he cheerfully explained to me about their habits (they’re plant-eaters, apparently). So I turned to him and asked, “Son, when you grow up, would you like to be a scientist, who digs up dinosaur bones?” “Daddy,” he says to me, witheringly, “You mean a palæontologist.”
“Yes,” I said meekly, “a palæontologist.” “Sure.” he says, “And then, when I’m done, I can give the bones to a museum.”
Posted by distler at January 11, 2006 11:06 PM
Re: Dem Bones
Cute, but does it make nay experimental predictions?
For one, this colleague of yours that you have called “my five year old” (a weak attempt at maintaining anonymity) presents a dubious account of Mesoic life.
His “Doggiesaurus” cannot be found anywhere in the literature and yet he has already hypothesised their dietary habits.
He is only willing to “dig up the bones” at a much later stage in life. This relegation of experimental evidence as second place, with theorising being the favoured mode of discourse speaks volumes about the current academic climate.
I am writing to the U.N. as we speak.