Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History and the Rose Center to show my parents what's been updated since they last went in (which could have been during the Koch years for all I remember). We picked the Passport to the Universe planetarium show as the best one to introduce my parents to the new planetarium (a good first one ... lots of impressive zooming around stars and galaxies). It makes our crappy Earth leaders and problems seem all the more trivial and motelike. I even bought a cool new Hayden T-shirt to wear to the gym et al.

Then we hit the exhibit Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries. I was impressed with the touchscreens and interactive aspects. The large emphasis was on how technology and a reevaluation using comparison to modern-day animals has helped paleontologists update our thinking of dinosaurs -- their posture, speed, appearance, and so on. This one is the size of a dog:

Then was the Darwin exhibit. There was so much detail to it that the show actually gave me a headache. The exhibit covered everything, from his childhood to beyond his death and the arguments behind things like Intelligent Design (e.g., how could something as complicated as an eye evolve). They included live Galapagos animals (the tortoises were meandering and fascinating; the large iguana yawned) and many of the samples he collected. The longest lines were to the cases that held his journals and letters, which I also found the most awesome. Incredible to see the lists and commentary he made on the island enviroment. I also enjoyed the examples of hand and arm bone structure layed out in comparison for similarities, from human to chimp to komodo dragon, all look so much alike. There's got to be a poem in there somewhere.

No photos allowed, folks, but here's one more from the day ... not a great shot but a museum favorite for everyone, I am sure. It's my favorite space in the whole place, this oceanic hall. A peaceful cool blue that almost swallowed my headache.

I couldn't leave without a souvenir Darwin floaty pen. Come on, you all know I have to buy a floaty pen from everywhere. As I sit at this desk, just the ones I can see in my pen cup:

• FDR Estate, Hyde Park, NY (green)
• Grandma Moses in the 21st Century, Shelburne, VT (purple)
• Ben & Jerry's factory, Waterbury, VT (orange)
• Rose Center for Earth Space and Science, NY, NY (red)
• Newport Mansions, RI, The Elms (red)