Elephant and elephant: Before and after dipping into the Natural History museum for its Western Civilization exhibit, I had occasion to stop by the Zoo, where I observed a mommy elephant and a baby elephant enjoying an educational lunch. The baby repeatedly tried to master the skill of pulling branches off of trees, a task requiring a movement of simultaneously pulling and twisting. However, he attempted only the former, wrapping his trunk around a large branch and walking backwards until it slipped from its grasp. The mother would allow the baby to munch on decreasing amounts of dropped foliage from her own bundle after each failure, but she finally left seeming to have given up disappointedly. I myself had the worst snow cone I had ever tried to eat before giving up and throwing half of it out in disgust. It seemed to be flavored red-, yellow-, and blue-food coloring. There just really isn’t anything good to eat at the Zoo unless you’re a carnivore.

Rockville’s Tara Asia, besides not having a Tara Thai within 5 blocks, offers discounts at Regal, providing a bonus if one irresponsibly were to not purchase tickets beforehand. “I, Robot” was interesting enough for me to want to read Asimov’s, though only a copy of the New Yorker could be found. At least I got to meet one of the adoring fans of “Danny is cool” club.