Size Doesn’T Matter

Think about this: Recent neurological research indicates female brains are 10 to 15 percent smaller than men’s, but women use a higher percentage of their brains and in different ways. Scientists say women utilize more of the right hemisphere the side associated with creativity and emotion and that women’s brains are hard-wired for more intuitive thinking.

Women are also twice as sensitive to sound, but only half as sensitive to light. The female brain ages more slowly and women are less prone to memory loss. And women seem to register sexual pleasure in a different part of their brains than men do, and perhaps even in several places. (From September/October Mirabella)

* Facts of life: Only 4 percent of women and 1 percent of men are still virgins on their wedding night, according to a Bride’s Magazine survey. (From August/September Bride’s Magazine)

* A sobering thought: Among the factoids we gleaned from the many polls about President Clinton post-explanation is this: In a Newsweek survey, 48 percent of the respondents think Bill Clinton is worse than the average American husband.

Which means 52 percent of those polled think Clinton is either average or better than average as a husband? (From Aug. 31 Newsweek)

* Now where can we go to get away? There is no place left in the Lower 48 states that is more than 30 miles from a road. (From August Sports Afield)

* Here you have it: Some young kids already have the gender thing figured out. A recent issue of Child Development magazine includes a story of a boy named Jeremy who put barrettes in his hair to wear to nursery school. One boy at school kept teasing Jeremy by calling him a girl. To prove to his classmate he was, indeed, a boy, Jeremy pulled his pants down. The classmate was not impressed, says the researcher recounting the anecdote; he simply told Jeremy: “Everybody has a penis. Only girls wear barrettes.” (From September/October Utne Reader)

* Enough, already: We’ll ring in with Mirabella magazine, which calls for a moratorium on Viagra talk unless in the same breath you discuss the outrageous fact that 49 percent of the nation’s health-insurance plans don’t pay for prescription birth-control pills or devices. (From September/October Mirabella)

* What became of the national fitness program? Bill Bryson, author of “A Walk in the Woods,” offered up this insight from his book: “Every 20 minutes on the Appalachian Trail I walked farther than the average American walks in a week. For 93 percent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in a car. On average, the total walking of an American these days adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day.” (From August Men’s Journal)

Spokesman-Review. Contact her by mail at 999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201; by e-mail at susane@spokesman.com; or by phone at 459-5488.