Word: smithsonian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Instead of collecting all those vampires and woodpeckers, the Smithsonian [Feb. 8] should follow the example of the old-fashioned maiden who never forgets how to say no to new offers...
Would you really go to the Smithsonian to see 100,000 bats, 82,615 fleas and one pickled gorilla? What next, 1,000 California fruit flies...
...Smithsonian need save no more than ten examples of any one category. President Reagan should go to China and personally replace the bricks from the Great Wall. Then the articles that are left could be auctioned off, and the proceeds used to pay part of the national debt...
Once the inventory is complete, most of the objects not on display will be moved to a $28 million warehouse and conservation laboratory being built in Suitland, Md., six miles from the Smithsonian's main museums on the Mall near the Capitol. A new computer system will be capable of locating anything from hummingbird eggs to George Washington's egg poacher within an hour; now it takes days to find items, if they can be found...
Sooner or later, of course, even the new warehouse will be overflowing with odds and ends. Smithsonian officials say that they are trying to cut back on the number of items added each year (now anywhere between 1 million and 3 million), but the institution's grand acquisitors are hard to restrain...