While some Nytimes readers are quick to grab the crossword or The Ethicist, the sentimental softies among us reach for the Sunday Styles section and open straight to our weekly guilty pleasure, “Modern Love.” Tackling everything from “when your father google-stalks your boyfriends” to “my husband is now my wife,” the columns chronicle that crazy little thing called love. Cynics may roll their eyes, but Modern Love has an insane cult following—probably overlapping with the gazillion rom-com lovin’ ladies who devoured Eat, Pray, Love in one sitting. The column has snowballed into nine book deals and even a movie filmed in Morningside.

Given all the hoopla over Modern Love, it’s pretty exciting that today’s tale, “Bitten in the Virtual Zoo,” was written by one of our very own, senior Terry Tom Brown. A lab assistant at the Museum of Natural History, Terry marvels at animals’ remarkable gestures of interest to win their mates. “In humans, it’s the opposite,” he writes. “Why can’t we get enough of people who don’t give us enough?”