Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Asking For Directions
Here, chew on this:
What can you actually do, in your everyday life, with the results of a study that say men waste millions of hours every year by getting lost and refusing to ask for directions? Note that my question is not “what can you find to complain about,” but what can you actually DO with the information?
Mapless males prefer to remain lost
BRITISH male drivers waste nearly six million hours a year lost on the road because they are reluctant to ask for directions.
Men who are lost wait an average of 20 minutes before giving up and asking for directions, while women only wait 10 minutes before seeking help, a survey from Royal Automobile Club Direct Insurance said.
Men endured a “nagging period” of around 10 minutes from their partner before throwing in the towel and stopped to ask the way, the poll showed.
Based on responses from 2000 adults, the survey also revealed:
* About 64 per cent of couples admitted to having arguments over getting lost on the road.
* Only 27 per cent of couples planned their journeys before setting off.
* Just 36 per cent of couples relied on landmarks and road signs to find their destination
* One in four couples still scribble down basic directions on scrap paper.
Here’s another question: How do you go about measuring “an average of 20 minutes”? Every woman I’ve been married to, would say I drive around for damn near six hours without asking for directions. How do you get the final answer to be all scientifical so you can do your study on it? How about that “nagging period”? How do you go about getting the emotional entanglement out of this, so you can get a scientificably measurable figger you can put in the study? Doesn’t the word “average” imply that every sampling taken had a bearing on the bottom-line number? What, then, is done about the wives who say “he drove around for a million years before he asked for directions”?
Here’s yet another question: What could you actually do with the information provided in a study — a study not conducted anywhere, so far as I know — statistically measuring the accuracy of directions provided, once requested by these lost male drivers who, for whatever reason, finally ask for them?
Oy. There’s a thought.
Maybe someone should commission a study about that. We could divide the samplings into directions that are incorrect, despite the best of intentions on the part of those who give them; directions that are correct; directions that may as well be incorrect, because they’re completely incomprehensible; directions that are incorrect, because of malice and sick humor on the part of he who gives them; and, let’s see, is there anything else. Ah yes, probably the biggest slice of the pie: Directions which reflect a great deal more certainty, cosmetically, than what the source really has — because after all, people who give directions hate looking ignorant, even more than, more than, uh, well you know…male drivers.
Now, to all those male drivers who like to drive around endlessly without asking for directions, this study would be equally useless. But it would be critically important to anyone, male or female, who believes in asking for directions wouldn’t it? I wonder who could do this kind of research?
You know, it could very well be there already are people who do this kind of research. They’re called “male drivers.”
Perhaps this has some bearing on the subject at hand…
This morning on I-95, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Cadillac doing 65 mph with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner.
I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.
As a man, I don’t scare easily. But she scared me so much; I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand.
In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my cell phone away from my ear, which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed and burned Big Jim and the Twins, ruined the damn phone, soaked my trousers and disconnected an important call.
Damn women drivers!
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