the difference between men & women

My friends and I are avid watches of "The Office." It's set to "Keep until I delete" on the DVR. This past season, however, not everyone was totally pleased. It seemed pretty alright to me, but Rebecca complained that it just didn't seem right. The reason for the show's decline, in her opinion, was the fact that Jim and Pam finally got together. For those of you that don't watch the show, it's atypical in some ways, but Jim and Pam's relationship follows a classic sit-com arc. When the show begins, they're best friends at work who spend a good chunk of their time talking to each other and joking around. There's obvious chemistry there, but Pam is engaged to a jerk who works in the warehouse. It takes a few seasons, but eventually Jim confesses his love to her, she breaks up with the douche, and they end up together. Now they're happy and, as far as the relationship goes, more or less problemless. There's still conflict on the show, but the Jim and Pam "Will they or want they?" that was once the center of the show has been replaced by the much more tame, "When/how will Jim finally propose?" Rebecca thinks Jim and Pam's relationship has caused the show's decline. And, while she loves them both individualy and agrees that they're perfect for each other, she wants them should break up for the good of the show. I strongly disagree. In fact, I think it's a completely horrible idea.

One of my least favorite things in movies and TV shows is when a couple gets together and they're obviously right for each other, but in order to stretch things out and create conflict, the writers send some ridiculous, unrealistic circumstance or misunderstanding their way to break them up. It's that kind of thinking that ruined "Friends." During the early years, I considered it one of my favorite shows, but then, after the audience had waited years for Ross and Rachel to get together, the stupid writers broke them up. I didn't have such a strong attachment to the characters that their split upset me, but it didn't make sense and it sent the show into a whole new direction. What had once been a show about quirky 20-somethings and their misadventures became basically a soap opera with the friends taking turns hooking up with each other and whatever celebrity they could talk into making a cameo. A few years after the break-up, the writers gave Ross and Rachel a baby, but defiantly refused to let them get back together. They finally reunited in the pilot with what I believe was one of those cliche airport scenes and I guess that was the idea all along. By that point, however, it was anti-climatic and the damage had been done. The ratings stayed high, of course, but what was once a show with across-the-board appeal became a show that guys refused to watch. "

It got me thinking about men and women. Maybe women just like for things to be complicated. I think every guy has been asked a question that seems like a trap. Every guy has seen a woman freak out and start a fight over something that seems insignificant. That's not to see that men don't do a myriad of things to ruin relationships as well. We're just as stupid if not more so. But I still wish that women could learn to be happy when things are good.


I've picked up another key gender difference during my time at Toys [backwards]R Us. Women have children as an outlet for nurturing and a source of unconditional love. Men have children to give themselves an excuse to play with toys.


On a completely unrelated note. Do we know for sure that Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man were husband and wife? She used the ubiquitous-in-the-80's "Ms" that's specifically designed to be unspecific. She may have been his sister for all we know. I do remember a Pac-Man Jr at one point, but they certainly wouldn't be the first couple to have a child out of wedlock and it's perfectly possible that, 80's supercelebrity that he was, Pac-Man knocked up Samus from Metroid or the blonde girl in the ferrari from Out Run. Maybe the fact that her name was Ms Pac-Man and not Pac-Woman means they were probably married, but either way I'm pretty sure she was sleeping with Q*bert.

push it back?

I found this article interesting. Seems that a bunch of college presidents got together to push for the drinking age to be moved back to 18. It's definitely weird to me that you can be a legal adult in so many other ways and not be afforded all the rights of adulthood. I also understand that it's difficult for colleges to treat some students differently than others. It's a weird situation. On the other hand, nobody wants more drunk driving deaths. I don't drink personally, but I don't think it' morally wrong if the drinker is legal and the intent is not to get drunk. I'm not sure how I come down on this particular issue, but I'm tempted to go with the college presidents. I usually favor more freedom over less. What do you guys think?