When people ask me to sum up what I write about, I often respond “Prehistoric creatures with big, scary teeth.” That isn’t strictly true –- my interests are a bit wider than that – but I do have a fondness for sharp-toothed Jurassic theropods, sabercats, and other formidable carnivoresof ages past. (When a friend of mine recently extolled the virtues of the herbivorous hadrosaurs, I jokingly responded, “Of course they’re important –- tyrannosaurs had to eat something, after all.”) It goes without saying that teeth are just as crucial to herbivores and omnivores as to meat-eaters, but teeth c...

Occupy D.C. protestors hold the fort on Sunday night. Several men held the roof, while a larger group of men and women stayed inside on the ground level.

WASHINGTON — “Eat your heart out, Zuccotti!” exclaimed Sophie Vic, chiding the far-more-celebrated former occupiers of Zuccotti Park in Manhattan.

Vic, camping in D.C.’s McPherson Square since Oct. 6 while keeping her fulltime day job, was literally jumping with excitement as compatriots assembled a 24-by-24-by-17-foot wooden meeting hall designed to hold 100 people.