Tsavo lions: still pride of city

So what if our man-eating lions were only man-snacking lions, we're still proud of them.

They did their best.

Does it really matter that the two lions, stuffed and on display at the Field Museum, ate a mere 35 or so people -- not 135?

Thirty-five people is still a lot, enough to fill a bingo hall, and how many lions can claim to have eaten even one human?

Thirty-five remains an inspiration to lions everywhere.

If you missed the news, here it is:

Scientists at the University of California in Santa Cruz, by studying fragments of bone and fur, have determined that the Field Museum's Tsavo lions no doubt ate their share of imperial British railroad workers in Kenya back in the 1890s, but nowhere near the 135 of lore.

Had this been known earlier, Hollywood might have taken a pass on the lions' life story, which inspired the 1996 movie "The Ghost and the Darkness."

But Chicago's not about to forsake them.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre would have been quite an evil day of work even if Capone had gunned down six men, not seven.

And the Great Chicago Fire would have been more than your average prairie blaze even if it had stopped short of the Water Tower.

Our Tsavo lions -- they've got nothing to apologize for.