Mike,
I must differ with you--In naming and assigning a gender to my car, I
contend that I have "personalized" her, recognized her individuality, and
raised her above the status of a mere "mobility appliance" ( to coin a
phrase). If anything, I feel my approach to this matter has heightened,
rather than diminished, my sensitivity and responsiveness to both her
needs, and her compaints/problems!!
For those of you who might espouse the approach to gender as found in the
German language, I recommend that you read Mark Twain's marvelous essay
entitled "The Awful German Language", especially the part dealing with the
Fishwife's Story. If you don't get at least a series of chuckles out of that
essay, one or some combination of the following must be true:
1) You were born into a non- German-speaking family, and never studied
German. AND/OR
2) You were born into a German-speaking family, and find that system of
genders used therin is extremely logical . AND/OR
3) Your sense of humor (humour) is on holiday . (Hopefully, it will be back
soon!)
PLEASE, don't any of you take ANY of this personally!!! It's all in fun,
OK?
Regards to all,
Carl Fritz
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