avocado of ten thousand days

a few weeks after i arrived at a small east bay biotech company i started hearing stories about kary. there was no way for me to verify what i heard but the versions i’ve collected from different people were fairly similar, whatever that’s worth. i chose to believe them, not because of any conviction in their truthfulness, but because they were amusing and helped feed my mental image of a provocative personality.

i heard he published a theoretical physics paper in science or nature while still an undergrad. i hear he’s an original but undisciplined thinker and was all thumbs in the lab. at one of the company’s yearly “blue sky” retreats, where researchers would brainstorm new ideas, his presentation prompted the ceo to wonder out loud, “what the fuck was that?” kary later won the nobel prize for that idea.

i also heard he enjoyed the company of ladies and was, um, passionately invested in his relationships. sure, there were a few rough scraps with real and imagined romantic rivals, but they paled next to rumors of him bringing a gun to work during a particularly intense bout of jealousy.

but the story i enjoyed the most was one shared by one of his exs. “a 10,000 day old woman is biologically perfect,” i was told he said, “just like a ripe avocado.”

Posted by cellpharmer at September 12, 2007 07:20 PM