Wow! Great thread. Response to all 143 posts follows, by points: 1) Women's clothing: Sucks. I'd really like to be able to buy things for my wife, but I wouldn't dare. Screw up in the wrong direction, and you're history, pal. And as has been mentioned, size varies by manufacturer and even day-to-day for a specific woman. The best I can do is go with her on shopping day, stand outside the fitting room, and answer Nice, dear when asked how 'this' looks. 2) All that crap Bailey has in her purse: Ever heard George Carlin's A place for my stuff ? You take what you think you need. I have a wallet chock full 'o plasic (and occasionally even miniscule amounts of cash as well), car keys, change, a pen, and a pager. If I'm working on computers that day, I'll have my Leatherman on the belt opposite the pager. If I'm going to be in a bad neighborhood, I'll have the Spyderco in my back pocket. The first aid kit is in the glove box of my car, and another one is in the center pocket of my large ruck. There's a blanket and bungees in the trunk of the car, and a poncho, bungees, and a hammock in the right hand pocket of the ruck, the 'cho liner is in the ruck. There's a flashlight in the glove box of the car, and another one in the left hand pocket of the ruck. MREs in the trunk of the car, more in the ruck. Usually a couple warm cans of Mountain Dew rolling around on the floor in the car as well, and a two-quart full of stale water on the right hand side of the ruck. Iodine pills too. Dropped into a foreign country, I can survive indefinitely in any area sufficiently advanced enough to take either Visa or Mastercard. So long as I have either my car, my ruck, or both, I can survive at least a week regardless of the environment. And if I have a gun, I can survive theoretically forever, so long as I find someone who planned ahead a little better than I did, and I got the drop on them.   So you don't really need to carry a twenty-pound purse, although if you're going to go to the woods to live deliberately, to suck the marrow out of life , I advise taking at least 50 lbs of ruck full of useful things. And if you're going to do computer consulting in Chicago, I would recommend the 3600-lb Oldsmobile full of useful things. 3) How many pairs of shoes do you own?: I dunno if I can count that high, but I'll try. 1 pr'Rain shoes' - running shoes older than Jesus, worn to make it rain 15 prs of leg boots (3 pair never been worn) - standard Army boots 2 prs jungle boots - (1 never worn, 1 worn daily most of the time) 2 prs desert boots - (1 never worn) 1 pr 'waffle-os' - pre-Army hiking boots 1 pr nasty old construction-worker boots 2 prs cheap running shoes 3 prs low quarters - standard army-issue dress shoes 2 prs Chloroframs - real army dress shoes 2 prs tan suede loafers - only worn where rain shoes or jungle boots would         be inappropriate 1 pr white patent-leather marching band shoes - because someday I may go         back.   This, to me, seems like a rediculously silly large number of shoes. And yet, my wife easily has twice as many shoes as me. Why is this? Sure, I have 32 pairs of shoes- but 22 of those were presents from Uncle, and 4 more of those I'd never own were it not for Uncle, so realistically I actually own 6 or 7 pairs of shoes. And of those, I wear four with any regularity. And my wife has upwards of 50? Er?

Then where is your Geek Code?  http://www.geekcode.com if you don't know I refuse to participate in any symbology that uses ! to mean none instead of very much And you call your self a geek.    Both languages of choice, as I recall, use ! for not. Linguistic bigotry!  C is not the only language in geekdom, just like English is not the only language of the rest of the world. I'm a main_frame_ geek.  PL/I was the language.  It was implemented (for most of us) in a character set that included a specific not character.

You are the alpha geek, Paul. I am kowtowing even as I type this. I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean... Paul Guertin This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

And you call your self a geek.    Both languages of choice, as I recall, use ! for not. Linguistic bigotry!  C is not the only language in geekdom, just like English is not the only language of the rest of the world. I'm a main_frame_ geek.  PL/I was the language.  It was implemented (for most of us) in a character set that included a specific not character. I did make an error in my statement.  It should read all 4 of the Languages of Choice , not Both . see http://www.hack.gr/jargon/html/L/languages-of-choice.html for more details. === quoteing here ===== languages of choice n. C, C++, LISP, and Perl. Nearly every hacker knows one of C or LISP, and most good ones are fluent in both. C++, despite some serious drawbacks, is generally preferred to other _object_-oriented languages (though in 1999 it looks as though Java has displaced it in the affections of hackers, if not everywhere). Since around 1990 Perl has rapidly been gaining favor, especially as a tool for systems-administration utilities and rapid prototyping. Python, Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in small but influential communities. There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers with FORTRAN, or even assembler, as their language of choice. They often prefer to be known as Real Programmers, and other hackers consider them a bit odd (see The Story of Mel in Appendix A). Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or appropriate for anything but HLL implementation, glue, and a few time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems programs. FORTRAN occupies a shrinking niche in scientific programming. Most hackers tend to frown on languages like Pascal and Ada, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered necessary for hacking (see bondage-and-discipline language), and to regard everything even remotely connected with COBOL or other traditional card walloper languages as a total and unmitigated loss. ===

see http://www.hack.gr/jargon/html/L/languages-of-choice.html for more details. === quoteing here ===== languages of choice n. C, C++, LISP, and Perl. Forth is a good hacking language too, especially for those of us who spent their :larval stage: programming 8-bit microprocessors. Paul Guertin This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it