Re: Once again, what's a PASSLQ.

Robert Harley (Robert.Harley@inria.fr)
Mon, 16 Jun 1997 11:32:55 +0200 (MET DST)


The Adameisterooski wrote:
>[...] Safire said that "POSSLQ" was an offense to the 10%
>of Americans who happen to be gay, so he suggested that the census
>bureau use PASSLQ instead in a New York Times column.

Harumph. That Safire bloke must be a militant species-ist.
What about the 23% who prefer the company of a sexy hamster?
I hereby petition the bureau to replace POSSLQ with AASSLQ: Animal of
the Appropriate Sex Sharing Living Quarters.

And there are those 18% of necrophiliac-americans whose civil rights
must be defended. I mean, who are we to to judge those who happen to
be turned on by a nice firm corpse? I hereby cancel the previous
motion and demand that the bureau replace POSSLQ with TASSLQ: Thing
of the Appropriate Sex Sharing Living Quarters.

Darn, there are about 34% whose sex life involves non-gendered things,
such as the Usenet alt.binaries.pictures hierarchy and a big pillow.
And 15% have no "living quarters" as such but have to survive on the
street, under a bridge, wherever. I hereby waive the previous demand
and order the bureau to replace POSSLQ with a noun sufficiently
generic to offend no-one: "stuff".

-- Rob

PS: In answer to the question that started this, Myriam is indeed my
SBSLQ now not just a g.f. (Sexy Babe Sharing Living Quarters).
PPS: Where did your 10% come from? If I recall correctly (always a
doubtful proposition), in anonymized surveys roughly 97% of
American men claim to be heterosexual, 1.5% homosexual and 1.5%
bisexual.