This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When I read the headline "Planes, trains and orangutans: 12 distinctly Utah things to do this summer" (Tribune, May 25), I thought: There is nothing "distinctly Utah" about orangutans.

The Natural History Museum of Utah has dinosaur bones. Lagoon includes the Pioneer Village. But what's "distinctly Utah" about Hogle Zoo?

"The most distinctively Utah thing about this zoo is its location — a 42-acre site at the mouth of Emigration Canyon."

Unless the zoo features California gulls eating Mormon crickets, I suppose the distinctive Utah thing about the zoo is that, well, it is in Utah, but that itself is hardly a noteworthy distinction. (The Trib could, but didn't, say the same about Lagoon or the Natural History Museum).

This is a case of a poorly thought out category ("distinctly Utah") and then wrenching items into it that don't fit (a generic metropolitan zoo). That's fine, I suppose, for a loosey-goosey entertainment section, but for those of us with a logical, literal mind-set, such verbal gymnastics make us question the intelligence of The Tribune staff, or its editors who make writers jump through silly hoops.

Anthony Malone

Salt Lake City