Sidebar: Small Talk

Something I discovered during my 30 years of working among more men than women, is that they are BY FAR bigger gossips than women…contrary to the traditional “women as gossiper” lore.   If I wanted to find out what *dirt* was going on in the office, the go-to person who knew and would be more than happy to tell me, was almost always a male.  That part of my life over, recently I visited a friend who somehow found herself elected president of her 360-unit condo association. As we sat in her living room there was a knock on the door. It was a fellow who regularly ran around the condo grounds, and was coming to report everything he saw. He did that every day, and wasn’t paid or given any other incentive than just to tell my friend who had noisy parties or parked in violation of condo rules, even though the adjacent neighbors made no complaints.  That’s just one more example to show it wasn't just where I had worked.