The Search For the Perfect Pair

Today, in Science Research, I was sitting at a computer between Mario and Julie. Julie was doing science fair stuff. I didn't want to work, so I looked over at Mario's computer. On it was written the following:

Mario: The Boss

Owen: Mr. Reliable

Irving: The Answer

Bryant and Tybalt Vaseline: The Dynamic Duo

I snorted and he looked over at me.

"Sorry for staring over your shoulder, but, The Boss? Really?"

"It's for Mrs. Macdonald. I'm trying to persuade her to keep our team intact for Moody's."

I looked over the list critically. "Do you think Tybalt and Bryant ever get sick of being referred to as one unit?"

He shrugged. "I like the names, though."

"I don't know, 'The Boss' is a bit egoistic."

"Yeah, but look at Irving. The Answer isn't really modest."

"But you're the one writing it."

"I'll send it from a fake email address so she won't know who wrote it."

"I have a feeling she'll be able to guess."

"I wonder if I can use one I already have. I used to have one for Tom Smith, and I still get phone calls about it."

I gave him a confused look.

"Well, you know those free things on the internet? I made a separate email address for them, and I always said my name was Tom Smith."

"You gave them your phone number?" I was shocked.

Wallace, who was on Mario's other side, made a garbled noise that sounded vaguely like a laugh.

"I wanted the free stuff!"

"You're not supposed to give out your phone number!"

"It's not like they knew my name. Besides, I moved across town later, and now it doesn't matter."

I shook my head and returned to reading an article for anthropology. A few minutes later he turned back to me.

"You know, I think you might be right. Dynamic Duo is a bit unfair to Bryant and Tybalt, cause they both really are smart in their own right. I think I'll do Batman and Robin instead."

This after he asked Garrett whether shape-memory polymers could be used to make a bat-cape.

"Which is Batman and which is Robin?"

He rewrote the statement to say

Bryant and Tybalt Vaseline: Batman and Robin (In no particular order)

"It still makes it seem like only one of them is useful. And people are going to assume that Tybalt is Robin, which is kind of unfair."

"True. Anyone know any more even superhero teams?"

"Superman and Superwoman," suggested Wallace.

I started cracking up. Mario searched 'dynamic duos' in google and clicked the wikipedia page. I searched superhero teams and got a list on wikipedia.

"You know, I think Mrs. Macdonald is more likely to have heard of these," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"That page is about the Korean pop group Dynamic Duo."

"Oh. Oops." He went to the same page I was on. "X-men?"

"Mystique is a girl. And there's more than two."

"Fantastic four! I wish there were only four of us, that would have been perfect."

"What about academic duos?"

"Scientists work alone."

"Watson and Crick?"

"These must be real DNA geeks, if you're calling them Watson and Crick," interjected Wallace.

"Who, Tybalt and Bryant? I guess so. They aren't really bio people, though," I said.

"Not Watson and Crick. Newton and [weird German name]? Everyone thinks they worked together, but they actually didn't."

Wallace and I looked confused.

"Maybe not. Hey, Dr. Verona, do you know of any famous pairs? Superheroes, or scientists, or something?"

"Batman and Robin."

"Where they're of equal standing," said Mario.

"No power imbalance," I added.

"What about the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper?"

"Alpha-beta-gamma?" I laughed.

"Look it up!" said Dr. V.

Mario searched it, and this wikipedia page showed up.

Dr. V spent about five minutes explaining the various reasons why this paper was cool. I laughed a lot, and Mario may have smiled a bit, but not a heck of a lot. When Dr. Verona left, Mario returned to google and typed something about famous pairs. He got a page with a few more on it. The fourth one down: Kirk and Spock.

I started laughing. "That's perfect! Bryant even looks like Spock."

"I can't believe it took us this long to think of that. Dr. Verona, why didn't you suggest Kirk and Spock."

"They aren't super heroes, they aren't really even a duo."

"Doesn't matter," said Mario. "It's perfect."