Those random context-free "Please choose" polls I run once in awhile aren't quite as random as they look. There's actually a method to my madness. I don't normally explain anything about those polls, because the explanation would screw up the results, but I'll make an exception for the latest one.

That's the poll I posted on Thursday, the one whose exclusive choices were "love," "solitude," "sex," "friendship," and "intimacy."

It's an exact duplicate, down to the word choice and order, of a poll I posted last April. The only difference was that in the new one, I said that the responses were "semi-anonymous," or as anonymous as I could make them.

After the first poll, a few people commented on the fact that no one picked "sex" as their word of choice. At the time, H wondered out loud if people were too embarrassed to pick "sex" because they knew their names would appear with the response, and didn't want to appear shallow. Maybe if the poll was anonymous, the response would change.

So I waited nearly a year, and re-ran the poll with an extra layer of anonymity. The answer: nope, the extra level of anonymity doesn't matter a damn. The responses were nearly identical both times. There's no statistically valid difference between them.

Just in case you were wondering. Thanks for answering the polls, by the way. I'm always fascinated by the responses. (And they made wonderful sample data when I needed something to use for my stats homework.)

This one's semi-anonymous. The only person who sees who put in what answer is me.

Poll #1364425 Choices
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 22

Be specific

Poll #1181480 Friday poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

Please specify:

Poll #1177087 Your thoughts, please
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

Please specify:

Poll #1173402 Choices
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 32

Be specific

Poll #1169342 Another matter of importance
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

Please specify

Poll #1150083 A matter of importance
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

Choose only one:

Right. This is a serious question. I would even call it a Very Important Question except I would be ripping off magusdave more blatantly.

What do non-Christian folks yell during sex?

"OH GOD, OH GOD" clearly isn't going to cut it.

"O ALLAH" or "O VISHNU" or "HAIL ERIS" doesn't really work either.

Reports from the field are solicited. Half-assed but entertaining theories are accepted as well.

As many of you may know, my lovely wife, the effervescent bubblesutonium, is a car geek. This may seem strange, for a legally blind woman who didn't get a driver's license until she was well into her twenties, but I assure you it is so.

Being a car geek, Bubbles has been a faithful subscriber to Car and Driver magazine since long before we were married. It's a surprisingly entertaining magazine, since the editors refuse to take themselves too seriously. Recent issues have profiled, among other things, the world's most expensive fire truck and the snow blowers used at the Denver International Airport.

But, when all is said and done Car and Driver usually recalls its roots: a mostly male, testosterone-driven, red-state, cars-as-sex-machines audience. FOURGASM! shouted a recent headline touting a comparison of 4-cylinder sports cars.

This month, unusually for them, they published an e-mail exchange between two of their [male] editors, excerpted here. The exchange began over a line in a story: A car's design "won't raise a tent in your pants like a 400-HP coupe should."

( Editorial remarks )

I would normally write off the attitude and jokes as par for the course of car geeks, except that the primary audience for Car and Driver in my house isn't me. It's my wife. You'd think the editors would want to broaden their horizons a bit for better circulation.

Sexist pigs or funny writing? Does the managing editor need a clue by four or the editor need a sense of humor?

Next week: Motorcycle Culture, or: How Many "IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THE BITCH FELL OFF" T-Shirt Owners Do You Know?

Poll #447306
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

If I lost my train of thought after being interrupted, and said to the person interrupting, "You hail from Porlock," would you recognize the reference?