When Eric was sick and parked on the couch the other night, he saw a special on Tasmanian devils. I got home late that night. Since he'd been sick and I'd been working, there wasn't much else to talk about.
He started to tell me a little about them, their terrible habits and the horrible noise they make. He told me about the family on the show who had a nest of Tasmanian devils take up residence under their house but couldn't do anything about it because the devils are protected by law.
Eric was hoarse, and his diction was all strange from the fever, so it was a very dreamy and fantastic-sounding story. I loved it, so I kept asking for more details--tell me about the mating, and do the noise again, baby, do the noise they make--until his voice got weaker and weaker and he started to look sad and pinched. Eventually it was hard to tell if he was doing his Tasmanian devil impression or hoarsely imploring his insane bitch of a girlfriend to leave him alone and let him rest. So I quit, he went to bed, and I felt guilty and sad for a while.
Fortunately, I found a Tasmanian devil FAQ on the Tasmanian government site, and all was bright again.
It's a good FAQ, informative in nature and conversational in tone, and I learned a lot about Tasmanian devils.
For instance, the females give birth to about 30 young at a time but only have four nipples, so 26 babies are lost to Darwinism within hours. Also the adults eat wallabies. So yeah, it's worth a look, if you have the slightest bit of curiosity about the subject.