by Peggy Robin
Is this column just another encomium to the National Zoo's newest immigrants, Qing Bao and Bao Li?
Yes and no.
Yes, it's my praise to the adorable panda pair from China, but no, it's not like most of the others. What makes it different? I refuse to use the tired old P-M word. You know what overused pun I mean, don't you?
OK, I'll say it: "PANDA-MONIUM."
You've already heard it or read it a few dozen times this week, I"m sure. Here's a far from comprehensive list of recent references:
Mayor Bowser
Smithsonian Zoo press release
Good Morning America
CBS Evening News and WUSA 9 CBS local news
ABC News and ABC local News 7 DC
NBC Nightly News and NBC 4 Washington
WTOP
NPR
The Guardian
Yahoo News
New York Post
DC News Now
Washington Post (just once this year, on Jan 24, 2025, as far as I could tell. Multiple references in years past.)
Who is not on this list? The New York Times, it seems. I hope I haven't missed anything, but the only use of "panda-monium" that I found after multiple Google searches is in a sentence in a guest essay by Vickie Constantine Croke on June 8, 2024, mocking the overuse of the term in print from 1936 onward: "In 1936, a wealthy Manhattan adventurer, Ruth Harkness, returned from China carrying the first live baby giant panda seen in the United States, setting off what many punning headline writers would forever call 'panda-monium.'"
Good job, NYT!
But I reserve my highest praise for a local organization for not pushing the P.M line on us. Who is it that rolled out the welcome mat without a single use of that worn-out pun?
The Washington Metro System!
I give you in its entirety the admirably restrained press release to welcome the pandas to their new home in DC:
Celebrate new giant pandas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo with commemorative SmarTrip card
Metro is celebrating the return of giant pandas to Washington D.C. through a special SmarTrip card collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
Customers can commemorate the public debut of giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao at the Smithsonian's National Zoo with a new limited-edition SmarTrip card available at select stations beginning Jan. 22.
To purchase the commemorative card, look for specially marked fare vending machines at the following Metro stations:
- Woodley Park/Zoo
- Cleveland Park
- Dupont Circle
- Metro Center
- L'Enfant Plaza
Zoo visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of Bao Li and Qing Bao once the pair debuts on Jan. 24 are encouraged to take Metro. Visit the zoo's website to reserve a free entry pass.
This is Metro's fourth panda themed SmarTrip card or paper ticket. This new design was updated to a new, bright color illustration for the new commemorative card.
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Congratulations, Metro PR department! If you'd posted this message directly on the Cleveland Park Listserv, you could have been nominated for a CP Listy!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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