What Gender Is Computer?

"What Gender Is Computer?"*

*A language instructor was explaining to her class
that in French, nouns, unlike their English counterparts,
are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.

One puzzled student asked, "What gender is computer?"
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her
French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two
groups, appropriately enough, by gender and asked
them to decide whether "computer" should be a
masculine or feminine noun.

Both groups were required to give four reasons for their
recommendation. The men's group decided that
computers should definitely be of 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 every one else.

3 Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term
memory for possible later retrieval.

4 As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find
yourself spending half your pay-check on accessories for it.

The women's group, however concluded that computers should be masculine,
because:

1 In order to get their attention you have to turn them on.

2 They have a lot of data but they are still clue less.

3 They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half
of the time they are the problem.

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd
waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
Received on Wed Sep 1 00:09:41 2010