Chameleons

I loved chameleons as a kid. I had chameleon pencils that changed colors, chameleon shirts, and subscription to Zoobooks magazine in anticipation of the chameleon issue. My brother had an anole (pronounced with the accent on the first syllable), which is a lizard that also changes colors, but it turns out that they're more closely related to iguanas than they are chameleons. In "the box" (see my 9/11/08 post for details on what that is), I have a page ripped out of my family's first encyclopedia set with the entry for, you guessed it, chameleons. When my wife and I visited the Birch Aquarium at UCSD shortly after moving to San Diego, we were lucky enough to arrive just at feeding time for the big three-horned chameleon on display. They opened a mayonaise-sized jar full of flies and we watched the chameleon pick them all off one by one with his shooting tongue. Perhaps someday I'll own my own, but I hear they get sick easy if your house isn't very warm and our current apartment doesn't even have an active heater. Think of me and chameleons next time you scrape snow or ice off your windshield.