Who Talks More, Men or Women?

I’m sure you’ve heard the latest about how women don’t talk more than men after all as previous research had shown. We know for sure now since researchers placed microphones on 396 college students for periods ranging from two to 10 days, sampled their conversations and calculated how many words they used in the course of a day. They found women used 16,215 words to the mens’ 15,669 a day. 

Often when I ask Hubby a question he’ll automatically say, “huh?” And I have to repeat myself. Sometimes I only get about half- or a third-way into my repeat and then he answers. I’ll bet a lot of men do that. Habit. So last night as we were watching television and the announcer came up with that women versus men talking tidbit, I said to Hubby. “We need those extra 519 words because we’re always having to repeat ourselves.”

His response was, “Huh?”

Multi-tasking While Driving

Over the 47 years I’ve been driving, I’ve noticed people doing a whole host of other things while they’re driving. So far I’ve seen several women putting on makeup, one man had a book spread across the steering wheel reading as he drove, another had a map spread out. I’ve seen men and women alike picking their noses or using their mobile phones, sometimes kissing or otherwise making out, but the weirdest thing I’ve seen so far was 2 or 3 weeks back when we saw a man brushing his teeth with his right hand while steering with the left. Guess he was late to work. It was almost noon after all. But the passengers in our car had a different idea.

“Maybe he’s on the way to see his girlfriend for a “nooner” and needs a fresh mouth,” they decided.

Weird Laws & Stingy Subway Shops in Idaho

I wonder how many people know that a law was passed in 1948 in Pocatello, Idaho banning grimaces and frowns. Though I’m told it’s never enforced, I still tried to hide my chagrin when we stopped a little later during a drive through the state for a sandwich at a local SUBWAY on the way to Yellowstone . The vegetarians in the group were told they didn’t have “veggie burgers,” so they cheerfully ordered a veggie and cheese instead. I ordered a ham & cheese on a 6-inch Italian herbs & cheese bun with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, black olives and a few slivers of onion. The sandwich maker piled the bun high with shredded iceberg, then carefully folded 2 paper-thin slices of ham and laid them on the lettuce nest and picked up the 2 also paper-thin slices of tomato. I finally got the nerve to say “could you please put more ham in?” (I remembered not to frown or grimace.)

He looked up at me as if he were startled, then shrugged his shoulders and said “I’ll have to go get more,” and did. Then he picked up the 2 puny slices of tomatoes again and put them on the now 3 still very thinnnnnnnn slices of ham, added the equivalent of about 3 sliced olives and the onion slivers. It was the best iceberg sandwich SUBWAY serves. I think QUIZNOS is right. SUBWAY is getting pretty stingy with everything except the iceberg. 

Smothers Brothers, New Car, and Crazy Bob

We bought a new car earlier this year, a Honda Civic Hybrid. It came with a satellite navigational system, you know, the kind like the one in a tv commercial where the lady with a nice voice tells you exactly when and where to turn, or what the nearest restaurants and lodges are. We found out in Las Vegas she doesn’t have that big a vocabulary, however, when our crazy friend Bob asked for “Closest Brothel.”  

“Please repeat,” she said. 

“Closest brothel,” Hubby repeated, a little louder this time.

We gave up and dissolved into laughter when she said the equivalent of “I don’t understand!”

We also got a free 3-month trial period of XM satellite radio, and liked it enough to order another 3-month period for some travel we expected to do in June. The advantage is the superb sound and you don’t lose the station when you drive through mountainous areas. And you hear some really old things you’d forgotten about, like the Smothers Brothers old television broadcasts. I really enjoyed hearing them sing the love story of Sally the Crab and Herman the Lobster. I thought that would make a good blogging subject but never could think how to do it. Hey, I think I just did.

That’s all for now, folks!