June 4, 2009

Overheard: Shells And Harmony

Abe and I were enjoying happy hour at a local restaurant. Abe had a theory.

Abe: “I can’t hear harmony in songs at all.”

Me: “That’s practically all I hear.”

Abe: “I know. It’s inborn. Women are born to put shells in the bathroom and sing harmony.”

I know he does this to bait me. We just laughed. But he kinda has a point. What do you think? What traits are inborn in the sexes?

Discuss.

13 comments:

THIS IS ME....ONLINE said...

I don't think I can get past the part about "shells in the bathroom". Just say no! :)

A Lewis said...

I remember driving down the road in our 1967 Chevrolet station wagon....and my mother teaching us how to harmonize and sing. I hear, and SING, the harmony in nearly any song I hear. Always. I think I'm about 30% chick.

Ur-spo said...

I think men are inborn to be piggy, and assume some woman will clean up after them.

Rox said...

Women: Can find things.
Men: Can't find anything, even if it's right in front of them.
Women: Know how much stuff will fit in the cargo space of a vehicle.
Men: Know how to steer out of a skid.

I could go on and on...

bigislandjeepguy said...

hahaha..."put shells in the bathroom". what's up with THAT?

i think for every "men are born to do this; women are born to do that," i have either met the exception, been the exception or know the exception. throw that stuff out the window! :)

Brian R said...

In our family only the men have a sense of direction. I guess it helps having a degree in Geography but I rarely get myself lost even in foreign countries and my memories of my Father were that he was similar. However my sister readily admits that if she and Mum went driving somewhere new, they invariably got lost.

Doug said...

Given the relatively high ratio of gay men who read your blog, you're likely to get a skewed response.

Personally, I think the traits of each sex are more due to nurture than nature.

Greg said...

Aww, gee...way to taint Happy Hour, Abe.

I guess shells in the bathroom are common because of the inherent water theme of the space. But if he were to hold one up to his ear, he might be able to hear some of those sweet harmonics.

Word veri is "gyness", which is either a mis-spelling of the condition of being afraid to stop and ask for directions, or maybe some kind of new agey wimmin's spelling for when flower close-ups look like girl parts.

the hobbit said...

Like A Lewis, I'm about 30% chick, and I harmonize, too. I mean, it also kind of happens to be my job, but I did it long before.

GIrls seem to be able to be wrong and get over it, whereas boys will always find a way to make it something you did that made him wrong.

dpaste said...

I have an inborn sense of harmony which I got from my grandmother. My sister? Not so much.

As far as finding things, it is my mother who must summon me or my father to find ANYTHING in the fridge. Seriously, she could be looking right at it.

My mother also has no sense of direction. She can rarely find the car in the mall parking lot. My dad and I have inborn GPS, although his is better.

Anonymous said...

AH!!! I DO love harmony! I can hear it in anything, sing it TO anything! In fact, in band I only challenged up to "2nd chair" because I preferred playing harmony to melody.

ClosetedBaptistLesbian said...

I can never hear the harmony in a piece, which is a problem because my voice is naturally an alto. When I was regularly in choir I would have to take the sheet music home and play the harmony line over and over again on the piano so I could learn it and sing it at rehearsal, instead of awkwardly jumping to the soprano line and running out of voice when it got high...

and I have a sense of direction

and there are no shells in my bathroom, although there are a few pictures of parrots and butterflies.

Monica said...

Hee, love this topic, and I know I'm late to the game, but oh well.

I have good pitch, but have never learned to harmonize. Like the poster above, if you want me to sing harmony you have to teach that strain to me.

Have great sense of direction.

In my observation it's the ability to multitask and see the 'big picture' of things that women excell at. I've said for a long time that women make better business analysts - talking to people to hear about their little slices of the world and be able to compile that back into "the business domain".

Men, I think are better at focusing on a topic for an extended period.