Zooillogix

Many people collect baseball cards, stamps, coins, comic books, rocks, fossils or nutcrackers. I believe I have opened up a whole new field of nerd-dom with my zoo and aquarium shot glass collection. Given that it is the only zoo and aquarium shot glass collection I know of, I have also decided it is the world's largest.

In no particular order, I currently have shot glasses from the San Diego Zoo, Newport Aquarium, Cincinnati Zoo, Knoxville Zoo, Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, Tennessee Aquarium, New York Aquarium, Smithsonian National Zoo, Bronx Zoo, New England Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, Philadelphia Zoo, Shedd Aquarium, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, San Diego Zoo, The Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT, Florida Aquarium, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Adventure Aquarium (formerly Camden Aquarium), South Carolina Aquarium and Sea World San Diego.

With a couple of exceptions, I have been to all of these institutions. Conspicuously absent are the Mystic Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, Brookfield Zoo, Beardsley Zoo, Catskill Game Park, Central Park Zoo, Roanoke Zoo, Santa Barbara Zoo, Antwerp Zoo, Berlin Zoo, Copenhagen Zoo, and ZSL London Zoo.

Some of my prized items are a Bronx Zoo glass from '85 (2nd row, center) and the Adventure Aquarium martini shot glass (back row, third in from the right).

If any readers would like to donate zoo or aquarium shot glasses for the greater glory of my collection, I will write a heartfelt thank you letter recognizing your contribution and post it on Zooillogix. For only about $5.50 (plus shipping and handling) your shot glass donation can help a poor, dorky Andrew alienate himself from friends and co-workers with his rapidly growing weird-ass collection. That's only 1.5 pennies a day to really make a difference.

Clarification #1 - The "conspicuously absent" glasses are places I have been, but do not have glasses from. However, I will accept any and all zoo and aquarium shot glass contributions!

Clarification #2 - Canadian zoos and aquariums are undoubtedly the most interesting, most forward-thinking, most wonderfulest of any such institutions in the world. And the Vancouver Aquarium is the jewel in our snowy, woodsy, sparsely populated northerly neighbor's crown.