What Men Are Thinking

Driving to work this AM, I heard an ad for a new show promising to explain men's latest thinking to women. I see the same sort of promise on the magazines at the supermarket. Now I have a peculiar theory about that: maybe they just try listening to men talk.

I even have some theories about what they would hear. Mostly, I think, men talk is about (a)showing off, (b)themselves , (c)sports, (d)work and work politics, (e)sex, and (f)women, with(e) and (f) only distantly related. If they notice a not obviously decrepit woman listening, of course, you can neglect everything except (a) and (b).


Men might harbor similar curiosity about women's thinking, but that kind of show for them woudn't work. Trying to find out about women in that way would be almost as humiliating as asking for directions. Men could try the listening to women trick, but it usually comes acropper when the man zones out or interrupts with inappropriate comments. I have spent some time listening to women myself, and I would probably have a pretty good idea what they are thinking about except for usually (a)zoning out, or (b)interrupting inappropriately to try and turn the conversation to some topic more interesting, for example, me.

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