What Can I Say, I’m a Man of Good Taste

As a budding ornithologist, I still deeply appreciate the the diversity across nature in groups other than birds. That’s why I couldn’t resist buying this shirt, which was produced for the Texas Society of Mammalogists most recent meeting. (My major professor, an ornithologist himself, even did the artwork). I needed some added diversity to go along with my dozen or more bird shirts.

It’s a Phyllostomid (leaf-nosed) bat. This new world family has the honor of having the most diverse feeding niches of any mammalian family. There are Phyllostomids which eat insects, fruits, blood, nectar, birds and other bats, frogs, fish, and probably something else I’m forgetting.

Now while the shirt was only $10 dollars, I’ve set a dangerous precedent here. When my wife learns that I’ve bought new clothes, I’m going to have a hard time convincing her that we really don’t have the money for new threads for her too. This beautiful and almost perfect women has ripped the closet rod off the wall twice this semester, due to the sheer weight of her existing wardrobe.

Still, I’m not sure if these arguments will be convincing. I may have to make a compromise.

Honey, I tell you what. I will gladly agree that you too can buy a Phyllostomid T-shirt, wherever you may find them, for approximately $10.

This marriage thing is great. It’s all about compromise and anticipating each other needs and wants. I’m glad I’ve got it figured out so well.