I'm a loyal friend, and I've done some brave things in my life. I'm comfortable talking with the creme de la creme of the intelligentsia as well as the people on the streets of North Philadelphia. I'm a good person to have around in a crisis. I don't scare easily. I love sexual relationships, and for me they are always emotionally meaningful. And, while I support all those polyamorous folks who are doing what they want in a beautiful way, I don't want to join them. Call me oldfashioned, but there it is.

When I'm alone, I tend to play the piano and read about mathematics or physics. I like to have friends over for dinner, and I'm partial to easy recipes. It's hard for me to avoid getting involved in politics, though I am not ruthless enough to be a successful politician myself. I like to get dressed up. I like to go to plays. I like to sing. I like to dance. I like to eat a good rare ribeye steak. I like to think about how a particular story or joke will be particularly appreciated by someone. I like to laugh. I love to play string quartets, and am especially fond of late Beethoven.

Preventing suffering and creating joy. Releasing my inner entrepreneur (after a half a lifetime in academia). Hanging out with the people I already love and looking to widen my circle of friends. Wishing I went dancing more often. Trying to make change through local politics. Trying to help people laugh, think and take action. Raising a daughter.

I'm really good at most things I try to be good at, much to the despair of my brother (when I was growing up) and my daughter (now that she is growing up). But the standouts are: mathematics, languages, playing the cello, singing harmony, memorizing song lyrics, doing crossword puzzles.

Great face, friendly disposition, expressive ears, no, wait, that's what they notice about my dog, who is the first thing they notice about me.

Books: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Master and Margarita, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Pride and Prejudice, Lie Groups and Physics, His Dark Materials, Monumental Propaganda, The Path to Power; The Lovely Bones

Movies: Diva, Angels in America (HBO version); American Beauty

Music: J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Eminem, Cole Porter, Joao Gilberto, Beatles, Shostakovich;

Food: savory pork roast, steak, chocolate, wine, anything cooked at my home by someone other than me.

Friends, a musical instrument (preferably piano, but cello and guitar are also good), mathematics, clean clothes, food, fresh air. I'd like to put sex on this list, but history has proven that I can do without it for a lot longer than I'd like to.

Real estate. Kissing. Elections. Data. Finding solutions to friends' problems, my city's problems, and math problems. Phrasing and organization of something I'm writing. The people I'm passing on the street.

Spurred by this question, I have started keeping track of what it is I do on Friday nights. Recent Fridays have found me (1) at the Caribou Cafe, drinking beer and enjoying a light dinner with a friend (2) at a Nationals baseball game in DC with my parents (3) hanging out in Rittenhouse Square singing with a gang of twenty-somethings I happen to know and/or watching the chess players and occasionally playing a game myself (4) painting my bathroom (5) puttering around my apartment (6) reading (7) knitting. Always I spend some portion of Friday night looking forward to Saturday morning, my favorite time of the week.

I have no tattoos.

you want to get away from your computer and go on a real live date.