RE: Friday Humor

From: SiderWhite (SiderWhite@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Fri Jul 09 1999 - 23:35:43 EEST


>A language instructor was explaining to her class that French
>nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically
>designated as masculine or feminine. Things like 'chalk'
>or 'pencil,' she described, would have a gender association
>although in English these words were neutral.
>Puzzled, one student raised his hand and asked,
>"What gender is a computer?"
>The teacher wasn't certain which it was, and so
>divided the class into two groups and asked them to decide
>if a computer should be masculine or feminine. One group
>was comprised of the women in the class, and the other,
>of men. Both groups were asked to give four reasons for
>their recommendation.
>
>The group of women concluded that computers should be
>referred to in the masculine gender because:
> 1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn
> them on.
> 2. They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
> 3. They are supposed to help you solve your problems,
> but half the time they ARE the problem.
> 4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that, if
> you had waited a little longer, you might have had a
> better model.
>
> The men, on the other hand, decided that computers should
> definitely be referred to in the feminine gender because:
>
> 1. No one but their creator understands their internal
> logic.
> 2. The native language they use to communicate with
> other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
> 3. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term
> memory for later retrieval.
> 4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find
> yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

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