not quite but almost

from a fascination with diametricals

To save you rushing off to your copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, or buzzing across to Dictionary.com, I'll tell you now that 'diametrical' is not a word, and there is no noun for diametricals. I think it's important to use words that people understand, even if that means inventing them. How else can a language evolve? For example, a mothermometer is another word for the hand that all mothers use by placing it on your forehead and then magically measure how hot you are.

To that end - I wanted to explore another curious oddity: that of choice. I don't think people like the idea of black and white, yes or no. Most people 'invent' shades of grey, because it makes their lives easier. My sister was a classic example in our little discussion - I stated that you can either choose cheat, or help someone cheat, on someone else, or you don't. She wanted me to believe that there were shades of grey - times when it was acceptable, and times when it wasn't. I disagree.

However - that aside - it made me want to explore this idea of pigeonholing, of giving someone two choices alone, from which they must choose one or the other. There is no "none of the above" option.

So! In the interests of a sociological experiment, I'm going to create a series of polls on my blog, over to the left there, and you can choose one of the options. It would be great if you could participate, I'll keep each one up for a couple of weeks, and make sure the results are published in a different blog entry. You can find out which side of the population you belong to for each of the options. What fun!!

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