The Life of a Serial Mistress

I normally meet men on the Internet, that is what I do best and I get to know 'the person' before I am subjected to his dreadful flirting skills or bad manners, but on occasions I am approached 'in the real world' and I am concerned at how many confident Lotharios are out there, using Dutch courage to approach women. I was sitting alone in a crowded, noisy bar the other day. I was reading a book and sipping a drink, occasionally glancing at my watch. I was waiting for my friend and it was obvious I was busy. Nearby, a group of red-faced, middle-aged men in suits were getting stuck into their third or fourth round of drinks. They had been getting steadily louder and more raucous. Once in a while, one of them would glance over to check me out, then turn back and make a comment to his pals, then they would guffaw with drunken laughter. I was making heroic efforts to ignore them. Eventually, to my horror, one of them got up. 'Oh please god no, please don't co...

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. 'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.' A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?' Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether 'computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation. The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because: No one but their creator understands their internal logic The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval As soon as you make a commitment to...