Not Into That Furry Thing

Now, I'm not one of these people who's all rah-rah about everything European and thinks they're superior to us in every way. I mean, I've heard French pop music, OK? And I don't think the BBC is perfect, but they do have lots of interesting funny little stuff, sciencey things and all. Today we're informed that if you're sitting around wondering whether humans and Neanderthals interbred, the results are in, and evidently they didn't. But now that I know that, it seems sad. A Neanderthal boy, a Cro-Magnon girl, walking and talking. Looking so sadly into each other's eyes. Holding each other. Crying until there were no more tears. Whispering goodbye, and walking away, never to see each other again. Because it just wasn't done, back then. They each found someone else, by and by, I would think, someone from their own species. But they never forgot each other, did they? Of course not. Once in a while it would all come back. They'd put down the hand ax or bone awl they were working with, and just sigh, with a faraway look. Their mates would say "There's that look again! What ails you?" and they'd say, "Nothing, dear." And go back to work. Call me sentimental but that seems like a high price to pay, just to keep the respective genome sequences unsullied. The real thing just doesn't come along all that often.