Art Deco and H. Sapiens

First of all, I would like to say that I have decided that "Art Deco" is really a euphemism for "Ugly and concrete, but old enough to be important, so we should call it something trendy." I mean really.

Also, I've decided I want to have children if only because I want to do all the things I miss but can't really do as an adult, like watching Disney movies, playing on high-tech playgrounds, and going to Children's Zoos. Tangentially related, we wandered out into the rain yesterday (it was sunny when we left, but I said the "zoo" word, and the suddenly the heavens drowned us for the blasphemy) to the Sheep Heid Inn in Duddingston, the oldest Public House in Scotland, dating from the mid-1300s. How's that for old? Someone has been getting drunk in that spot for over 700 years. Inside they have a collection of books of varying ages, and one old encyclopedia had this great little family tree of Homo sapiens. I heard once that these things existed (the book was from sometime after the Korean War in 1953 but before Alaska became a state in 1959-all this we figured out from the list of international flags in the book), but have never actually seen one: it had the "5 Races of Mankind" listed under H. sapiens, and had them splitting off from one another no less than 5 million years ago. Seriously. I found this fascinating, though not from a scientific point of view, but from a cultural one. As Jonmikel pointed out, if you have some kind of national political agenda, putting it in a text book is a great way to get the message out. It's funny how people will use science as a means to keep others down; one of the bases of the Civil Rights Movements: bad science.

Also, what made me think of playgrounds and kids: we found a great playground on the opposite side of Holyrood Park. It had a big jungle-gym type climbing thing, a big tire swing, and a zip-line. I mean really, how sweet is that? So we spent some time releasing our inner child and playing around, even though we were cold and wet, and even though neither of us was/is operating at 100%. And even though people looked ta us funny because we didn't have small children with us; apparently adults don't have inner children here accept when they get obnoxiously drunk.