Kansas Fossils

Because my parents split when I was a little kid, I grew up like a transient, never staying in one house for more than a year or two.

I was born in northern New Jersey, where I lived until I was eight years old, moving from a Victorian house into a two-bedroom apartment when my folks separated. Then, my mom bought a 1976 Trans Am, and we moved to northeastern Kansas, where I was raised by my mom and grandmother until I was fifteen (aside from a brief spell in a Missouri military school). I moved back to live with my dad at fifteen, and then went to college in western Massachusetts.

But it is Kansas that I still consider “home.” Although my mother passed away a couple of years ago, I still have family there. And friends. In fact, my wife and I talk about moving back there all the time since NYC is so flipping expensive, and we have a little kid.

But something is the matter with Kansas. One example is that the Kansas school board has re-written the criteria for science education to include explanations that go beyond natural explainations. Basically, religious freaks have hijacked the board, hoping to ding Darwin with their inane Intelligent Design hokum.

My uncle in Lawrence, Kan., works with paleontologists on computer programs that automate taxonomy, or the scientific naming of organisms found in the fossil record. It’s all premised upon the theory of evolution. Anyway, my uncle is selling shirts and hats with beautiful illustrations of fossils that double as political statements. Basically, you’re saying, “Here’s the fossil record. Deal with it.”

Here’s a link to the Kansas Fossil Store.