Having come down to Washington this weekend to give a talk, I knew I had to get over to the Smithsonian’s new Hall of Human Origins. The Smithsonian’s Briana Pobiner was kind enough to take me around and tell me about what went into its creation. I suppose I could pretend to be a professional museum reviewer and present a lengthy description of the hall, tell you what I liked, give the obligatory “But nothing is ever perfect,” indulge in some musings on the state of museumology, and on and on.

But I’m the sort of person who stops reading a review of a movie or a book as soon as I realize that it sounds fantastic. I don’t