> 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 composed 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 could 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.
>
> Speed'hehe'ball


I am not going to comment on this for fear of incriminating myself. But I *would* like to hear Brunnen_G's thoughts.....

Brunnen_G, are you out there ? Tell us what *you* think.

lada(definitely not French)dada