Recent History

Going to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History always makes me thing of two stories: The Catcher in the Rye and “Haunting Olivia.” There’s this line in “Haunting Olivia,” which is a short story by Karen Russell about these two brothers who are searching the water around their island for the ghost of their dead sister. The main character is searching for her with the “diabolical goggles” and describing all the ghost-things that he sees in the ocean when the narrator writes: “There are certain prehistoric things that swim beyond extinction.” I love that.

Nora, Ryan, and I browsed around the dino-exhibit this afternoon. We almost got in about three accidents trying to get to the museum, which always happens when Ryan tries to drive on the east side. Westside Ryan is a good driver. Eastside Ryan is an Megalodon.  Haha. It was worth the risk; we had a pretty fun afternoon.

They didn’t have diaper changing tables at the history museum, even though it’s mostly children who hang out there. So we crept into a classroom, and changed Nora on a lab table. Then we took pictures with their skeleton.

When I read Catcher for the first time when I was in high school (but reading extracurricularly), the only thing I underlined (in pencil) was this part when Holden’s at the museum, and he’s talking about all the scenes in glass cases, like the fishing Eskimo, and he thinks, “Certain things they ought to stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that’s impossible, but it’s too bad anyway.” I always loved that.

Wonder Face