> Hurrah for Rinkworks!!
>
> What a truly great Poll; who at one point or another in their life has not wondered this and now we have concise proof that older people squeeze at the end of the tube. Fascinating. I have been compiling a list in my head of great reader poll questions that I would be interested to have replies to....
>
> 1. Marmite or Bovril? This will not apply to many people in the States as I believe that it does not sell there but I'm certain that it does in Canada and Australia.
>

I'm a Stater, but I'll say Marmite. That sounds more like a food, while Bovril sounds like some drug you give to BSE-infected cows. That's probably because I've heard Marmite mentioned in books and things about Australia; correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it some kind of pastey peanut-butter-like meat product spread on bread?

> 2. How many paperclips can you find when you really need one?
>

Depends where I am. At school, I have to beg for them. (Abject groveling before my one friend who actually saves the darn friend; it's quite humiliating.) At home, I've got a whole mess stashed in a drawer, and there's usually one or two on the floor. Messy I am, but lacking in supplies I am not.

> 3. Question 2 also applies to pencils.
>

Oh, that sucks. I *never* have a pencil when I need one; I always ask to borrow one from a friend for the day, and after that day the pencil disappears, so I need to borrow again, and again... The result is that I'm basically a giant gravity well of disappearing pencils, and all my pencil-blessed friends end up fleeing before their whole supplies are destroyed by my rapacious hunger.

Once in a while I break down and go out and buy a whole box of nice, unsharpened pencils. They last about a week.

> 4. And safety pins.
>

Huh. I can't remember ever really needing a safety pin, actually. (The only use I've ever put them to is for pinning badges to clothing, and usually the badges come with a safety pin attached; if I lose the pin, I always lose the badge too, and that makes it moot.)

No, correction; *once* I was working at this service project, decorating a float for the Rose Parade, which involved climbing in and out and over and behind scaffoldings a lot. For some reason we needed security badges to be allowed into the warehouse with the float; I must've gone through six different badges that day, my ability to keep things attached to my body being what it is. (I'm surprised I can go through a day without losing all my clothes, except that I was broken out of that habit pretty early. Indecent exposure laws, and all.) The badges weren't the problem, since they were paper and easily replaceable (they just wrote your name on a paper with a marker, which begs the question of *why* we needed security badges at all that would be so easy to fake), but the old guy at the gate kept getting upset with me because I was quickly depleting his supply of safety pins. Luckily we didn't run out before the day was over, and he didn't get frustrated and send me home. ;)

So the answer would be "as many as I need, as long as the L.A. Booster Club is footing the bill." (It was their float; if you caught it on TV, it was the year 2000, and it was the one with the tortoise and the hare? On a bike? I helped do the rice on the tortoise's handlebars.)

> 5. When you pick up a magazine, do you start at the back and work your way forward? (please tell me that I'm not the only one in the world who does this.)
>

I flip through randomly and read anything that looks interesting. This way it can take me a week to go through a magazine, because I find myself reading my favorite articles (or fragments of articles) over and over again. And, as others have said, I too despise the growing tendency to split up articles and fill the intervening space with ads.

> 6. If you have ever watched "While You Were Sleeping", have you ever gone and tried on all your old jumpers in the vain hope that you will look like Sandra Bullock? This question may only apply to girls. That's not to say that guys can't join in though.
>

Uh... one time I dressed up as one of my gal friends for Twin Day during Spirit Week at my school. I wore a big purple maternity dress with fish on it.

I have no idea why I just threw that out there. Oh well.

> 7. Peppermint or Spearmint?
>

Spearmint. Peppermint is so blah, so ordinary.

> 8. Annoying paperclip man on Microsoft Word 'on' or 'off'? You know, the one who pops up, winking profusely to say "Looks like you're writing a letter...need any help?" when you type "dear". NO I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP!!! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!!!
>

ARGH! EVIL CLIPIT MUST DIE!

And I even know his #$%& NAME!

One time in Time magazine I saw, in that little quiz they have, a picture of Bill Gates posing at some convention or another. He was *with* a guy dressed as the $%@& giant talking paperclip. Grr... The two of them together represented everything wrong in the computer world. :) (I loved the quiz, though; the question was "Bill Gates here is..." and choice a) was "...still not the coolest guy in the room." Had to LOL.)

But, you know what, I do keep the Office Assistant on. Just not the stupid paperclip. But that cat is the most adorable cuddly wuddly thing...

(Okay, one post is a bad place to mention both my cross-dressing history and my predilection for cuddly wuddly things. But what the hey.)

> 9. Do you draw your curtains in the summer? When answering this, please be aware that I type this at my computer in a little village in Essex, I'm not outside your house trying to figure out which window is yours.
>

How do *you* know I don't live in that village in Essex, might I add? (Not that I'm saying I do. Don't wanna give the stalkers any clues.)

But, no, my room doesn't even have any curtains. Or real windows; it has two sliding glass doors that lead out onto a balcony. I tend to leave those doors open in the summer. (But I'm careful to stay well out of the possible line of fire of snipers.)

> 10. Which yoghurt is always left in the fridge because noone wants it?
>

Oh, definitely plain vanilla. Or, alternatively, that chocolate yogurt stuff. Or "peach cobbler" flavored yogurt. Anything that tastes too much like dessert and not like good, honest, fruity *yogurt*!

(And now I just stood up in defense of "fruitiness". Oy...)

> Liz"...red cherry every time..."zie
> x
>

Ar"who came up with the bright idea that yogurt should try to imitate ice cream, anyway?"thur