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Friday, May 21, 2010

E.O. Wilson's Bedtime Stories

Kiddo is curled up in bed with a book on biodiversity. I have to think this is an improvement over sleeping with his well-worn copy of The Magic Mountain. I mean, Wilson is kinda' heavy handed, but at least he leaves spirituality out of it. Mann didn't know shit about fire ants either.

It was ants that started this new fascination. Danny had been watching the ants in the bathroom on their trails (yes, I have ants in my bathroom-don't act like you don't). He wondered if a colony of fire ants is a match for a hive of paper wasps.

"Lets ask Edward O. Wilson." I suggested.

I looked through the books I had, but nothing specific.

"Can't we just call him, and ask?"


Yeah. Can you imagine calling over to the biology department at Harvard, and asking for Wilson because your five year old has some questions about fire ants? I let him take the book to bed, and read himself to sleep. As he drifted off, I could hear him sounding out species names, slowly, syllable, by syllable.

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