Of critters

DINOSAURS, it appears, are making a comeback. Not in their original, outsize reptilian form, but as stuffed toys, as T-shirt motifs, or in plastic miniatures, ready for battles staged on the furrowed landscape of a child's bedclothes. There are dinosaur toy departments at science museums and toy stores, such as the ``Toys of Extinction'' section in the offing at F. A. O. Schwarz. Then there are shops like the Dino Store, in Cambridge, Mass., attesting further to the boom in these ``terrible lizards.''

But when in modern times have dinosaurs been out of favor?

In many cases, ``brontosaurus'' or ``tyrannosaurus'' is the first polysyllable out of a small mouth. Then there are other childhood favorites, such as the benign, leaf-munching diplodocus, or the stegosaurus, whose distinctive plates evidently made it look like an ambulatory artichoke with a few rows missing.

They were huge and yet helpless against whatever forces eventually did them in. Is it paradoxically reassuring to children, who so often feel helpless in their smallness, to know that huge creatures are sometimes helpless too?

Or perhaps the toy dinosaur is the counterpart to the nighttime monster in the closet, the bear under the bed. The dinosaur is the fear faced and, for being faced, found not to be so terrible.

You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to Of critters
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1022/edino-f.html
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us