Shoegirl - the blog

Thought I must confess to having a mathematical mind, I have to say I was inflamed somewhat by the GCN "survey" of readers back in June. While I have to admit that I threw out the paper a while ago and couldn't get my hands on a copy, I was mildly annoyed by some of the findings which were published without questioning why they were likely to be the case. Even my Open University undergraduate Maths course taught me that its important, when looking at a case study, to assess some of the reasons why certain findings are the case.

Take, for example, the likely readership of GCN. The vast majority of copies of GCN are distributed via what is commonly known as the "scene" - the loosely connected network of commercial entities and community outlets that serve the segments of the gay "community" that are publicly "out." You won't get it in your local Centra. So this immediately excludes a vast number of potential gay people who either live …

What is it about apartment dwellers that they feel the need to make their phone calls outside their apartments? I have just noticed at least two sets of neighbours over the last few years (in both cases noisy and antisocial) who felt a dire need to take their phone calls outside so as not to disturb their partners or visitors inside, but instead to bother everybody living within a 30 foot radius with an open window. Come good summer weather and this only worsens.

Of course it goes without saying that these are generally the same people who also take phone calls (long ones, especially) after midnight, put on discernible music after 4am, keep pets in totallyunsuitable surroundings and play musical instruments (or sing) at equally unsocial hours.

I guess this is one area where ABSOs really can be used. There is little or no protection for apartment dwellers against noisy neighbours (and really, in my book, "noisy" means noisy after 11pm and before 7am - I do think people are t…