Thanks, Darwin, for teaching me to ditch the damn clippers and just bite my baby's nails.

It's Darwin Day. 

In honor of the occasion I'd love to share my favorite Darwin thing.

In Descent of Man, he was trying to demonstrate that animals are more than just sacks of meat. And part of that meant recounting an anecdote about a baboon that I believe he'd heard second-hand. Here's part of that tale:

“An adopted kitten scratched this affectionate baboon, who certainly had a fine intellect, for she was much astonished at being scratched, and immediately examined the kitten's feet, and without more ado bit off the claws.”

Photography by Kurt Severin, National Geographic Image Collection (source)

By the second edition Darwin added a shameless, deeply committed, and perfectly adorable footnote, surely written with a twinkle: 

"A critic, without any grounds, disputes the possibility of this act ... for the sake of discrediting my work. Therefore I tried, and found that I could readily seize with my own teeth the sharp little claws of a kitten nearly five weeks old." 

O! How I wish that spirit is what "Darwinian" actually referred to. 

Cheers to one and all on this very merry Darwin Day, 2016!