There was this article (not well written I think) in today's NYT Business section on the application of economics to explain how people marry. This economist's view of the mating market is summed up as follows:

"Each searcher is then assumed to follow the rule, “Marry the best person who will have me,” with the result a mating pattern in which 10s pair with other 10s, 9s with other 9s, and so on. Needless to say, this is a crassly unsentimental account of how people sort themselves into couples. But as a colleague once explained, it often suggests useful advice for struggling relationship-seekers.

A friend of his had complained about the inherent perversity of the relationship scene. “Why is it,” she wondered, “that the men I fall in love with are never interested in me, whereas I never feel attracted to the ones who fall for me?” Because my colleague knew this woman well, he felt free to respond candidly. “It’s simple,” he explained. “You’re an 8 constantly chasing after 10s and constantly being chased by 6s.” His friend later confessed that this one-sentence analysis had proved more useful than several years of expensive psychotherapy."

While the author later admits that this is a very simplistic view of such an emotion-laden transaction for it doesn't account for altruism and other good things like that, in my view, this model does offer a fair enough take on the real world. What would be nice, however, is if these econ chaps come up with a measuring mechanism that tattoos across the forehead of each person what his or her unchangeable number might be in bright red; for example, mine might be square root of minus one. This way I can get back into the Alice-In-The-Wonderland Date & Mate market(or when I am feeling less chartiable, the WTF?!-romantic-chemicals racket) out of which I have parked myself, and also make my management happy before their dreaded (and rapidly approaching) sell-by date (the date I turn 30) happens. :)

Checking weather this morning, an AP story titled "Rapper finds inspiration in Chaucer" caught my eye on the Yahoo frontpage. The rapper in question, Baba Brinkman, morphs Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" from Old English into rap. While clearly you won't hear the stock rap words such as "bitches", "mofos", "pimpin my ride" etc in Brinkman's ryhmes, I really like what he has done with Chaucer's dark "The Pardoner's Tale". Check this shit out yo!

"Ready to kill with their jagged-edged daggers drawn The three aggravated braggarts staggered up the lawn And without dragging on while the story is told Beneath the tree they found a bag filled with glorious gold,"

Continuing with yesterday's dolphin theme, there are some advantages to being really, really, really tall; you can be a dolphin superhero:

BEIJING - The long arms of the world's tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling out plastic from their stomachs, state media and an aquarium official said Thursday.