Second Helpings

If You Ask Me

Not feeling up to exercising this morning, I decided instead to use a voucher I was given as a gift for a pro-collogen facial at the beauty treatment part of the gym. I bet it burnt off at least two calories and I hope to recover from the guilt of being idle by a week on Wednesday at the latest.

Apart from regular hair appointments, I'm not one for beauty salons or expensive cosmetics and don't hold with the claims some of them make. Lipsticks that last sixteen hours and nail varnish that doesn't chip don't exist in my experience and I firmly believe companies that make these sort of claims should be sued.

The advert for the pro-collogen facial claimed out of one hundred women, ninety-five and a half or thereabouts noticed an immediate improvement in their skin tone and a reduction of wrinkles and lines. After studying the mirror, I reckon I look at most two hours younger than this morning and have to question again who exactly are the women who were asked their opinions. I have never in all my many years been asked to take part in market research or test out anything for a survey.

I conclude just like Robinson Crusoe, Donald Duck and Santa Claus the people quoted in these types of research are ficticious. Call me an old cynic if you like; I'm sure there's many would agree with you. Does life make us more cynical as we age or are we just born that way? Maybe I should conduct a survey.

While researching surveys however, I came across a little unknown piece of information which I found enlightening. According to the New Scientist journal in Paris, a published study revealed that shorter men are more prone to jealousy than taller men. This is evidence apparently that short men compensate for their lack of height through aggressive tendencies and are associated with domineering personalities as in the cases of Napoleon, Mussolini and Hitler.

Among women, averaged-sized females are supposedly the least jealous, while tall and short women tend to be more aggressive.

Apologies to any vertically challenged male or tall/short female readers, but I'm only quoting. It seems however to bear some truth in my case. I'd consider myself an average-sized woman and not of a jealous nature. My hubby could hardly be described as tall and I swear he's shrunk since I married him too. Maybe years of jealousy on his part have caused the shrinkage. Or maybe I just need a shrink.

I always did prefer taller men anyway, but why couldn't a survey like this have been around in my youth? Before I became an old cynic I might have just taken notice of this one and now be living in harmony with a six foot, gentle giant.

Have any of you ever taken part in a famous survey or discovered one which you consider holds some truth?