Re: verb gender

Paul J Kriha wrote:
> > > Why couldn't a man say, or why should someone think a man couldn't say,
> > > 'shortens out' for 'shorts out', either as opposed to a woman?
> >
> > Every boy has been told not to short something out, or told a story where
> > he shorted something out, say messing with his first battery, an interesting
> > experiment where the wire gets burning-hot and you get entertaining sparks.
> >
> > A girl can easily not have done that. ``Don't short the doll out'' is something
> > you don't come across.
>
> My ex-wife has a master degree in electrical engineering.
> She can also speak at four times the normal speed on
> several subjects simultaneously, at least it seems like she does.
>
> You'd find the TV & HIFI salesmen and repair men in our
> part of the world might not entirely agree with your categorical
> statement. :-)

The statement, though, is that somebody oblivious of ``shorting out a circuit'' is
a girl, not that all girls are ignorant of it. But it's common enough that
you can be an AP editor and not have heard of it.
--
Ron Hardin
rhhardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
.

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