No Offense, But This Is the Best Question You've Got?

It's both a Friday and a holiday here in the US, so there's really no better time for a laugh with Jonathan Eisen. At his blog, Eisen lists the other metaphors Darwin considered before choosing the "tree of life" analogy (based, he says, on direct communication with the historic scientist). These include the "watershed of life" and GTO's favorite, the "shrub of life" -- the latter rejected because, Eisen writes, "even then, [shrub] was used as a derogatory term to refer to height challenged individuals. And Darwin did not want to upset this key constituency."