From the ezine, “Gibbleguts” (March 28th issue)
A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in
Spanish, unlike English, nouns are not genderless but
are designated as either masculine or feminine. House
for instance, is feminine: la casa and Pencil, however,
is masculine: el lapiz. A student then asked, What
gender would a computer be?
A. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
B. The native language they use to communicate with other
computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
C. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term
memory for possible later retrieval; and finally
D. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your paycheck on accessories for it!
(THIS GETS BETTER!)
The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should
definitely be masculine, ‘el computador, because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the
time they ARE the problem; and 4. As soon as you commit to
one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could
have gotten a better model.
The women won.