Of Partners, Public Eavesdropping, and the Decline and Fall of Manhood

Great line - unless you're living it. I haven't had that experience, really. Perhaps because everybody knows my machine is empty. And I deliberately don't go where that kind of "material" thing matters. I suppose that reduces my chances of a date from small to microscopic. But that kind of a date is worse than none at all.

It's a sea creature. A microscopic one. The whole plant (and it is a green plant, called Ulvella lens; no common name) is maybe half a millimetre across, about the diameter of a human hair. Abalone farmers at various places around the Pacific (US, Australia, for two) grow it on plates and use it to "catch" baby abalone, which they then grow up in their tanks and take to market. My colleagues and I have written several scientific papers on the group to which Ulvella belongs, and more are in the works. If I can stop blogging.

Thanks!