Scribbler After Dark

Today was tourist day as I rode the El to the lakefront and checked the Shedd Aquarium and the ballyhooed lizards and kimodo dragon exhibit.

That dragon ain’t shit. The thing just laid on a rock, opened its eyes once or twice and ignored everyone. I even went back through the exhibit a second time about an hour later. Nothing. Pffft! Zip. Zero. Nada. I don’t care the saliva of a kimodo dragon is lethal. I don’t care that it turns out 10 percent of a kimodo dragon’s diet is other kimodo dragons - that the beasts are essentially cannibals.

Much cooler were the sharks, the Japanese spider crabs, the dolphins, the other smaller lizards and even some really cool turtles and an ocotopus. Well, the octopus was sleeping when I went by his tank, but, still, it’s a friggin’ octopus.

Anyway, Shedd is a pretty cool place. I mean, sharks and dolphins are going to be a good time. Unfortunately, the beluga whales were not being exhibited Thursday.

In other Chicago news, I think I picked up an appreciated for the universal-ness of the term “poopy.” While waiting for my take-out Thai dinner, there was a woman with two toddlers walking down the street, and one of the woman’s daughters went toward a typically fearless Chicago pigeon. The girl tried grabbing the pigeon, and her mother, in a really polite but firm tone, began speaking what I thought was French. I can’t be sure, but I could figure out the woman was reminding her daughter to stay away from the pigeon. I couldn’t make out the language for certain - whether it was French or some romantic-language sounding other one - but I very clearly made out the word “poopy” in the mother’s brief lecture to her daughter.

Funny thing, pigeons. In their “Rats-Of-The-Sky” existence, they’re also helping shape my understanding of different cultures.