You should come make flirty eyes at me!

The two of you flirting with each other? A flirtpocalypse!

It comes down to people hearing the word "average" and assuming it's the mean average. Which quite a lot of people do.

I may have the same attitudes towards "average" that I do towards "classical" music. I frequently say I don't care for Classical music because I prefer Baroque and, heaven help me, Impressionist - but don't care much for Beethoven or Mozart. Using words too precisely has its downsides.

I have A's tickets for Friday night. Not sure if you will be free, or if you even like baseball - but I could kick one of the kids to the curb for ya.

Aww, thanks, Suzi! But I think better to plan something chill and open--I'm worried I'll be close to passing out, after an all-day grueling interview! Thus the contemplation of brunch on Saturday before I leave.

AAAAND, I now have another interview! Just got off the phone interview with the other Seattle company, and they want me to come in! Yay!

Meara, yay!

So, either the NYT article is factually incorrect about the studies or else I just demonstrated what Dr. Gale said is impossible.

The Times made a big mistake. It's entirely possible that the median number of partners for men could be three or four times the median for women. I saved that article to use in class when I explain how important it is to know some statistics if you want to understand the world.

Another good example comes from politics. When Republicans talk about economic progress, they usually refer to mean (average) family income. When Democrats talk about economic progress they usually talk about median family income. The reason is that if the thousand richest Americans each make an extra hundred billion or so, it raises the mean family income, but it has no effect on the median family income. If you want to increase mean family income, all you have to do is find a way for rich people to get richer. If you want to change median family income you have to put policies in place that benefit most Americans, not just the rich.

Both mean and median income are meaningful statistics. Both the Republicans and the Democrats are providing useful information. It's just that, if you understand statistics, you can figure out what is going on. If you don't, you are destined to be a victim of propaganda.

According to my statistics, in comparison to that article I am a ginormous slut.

That is fascinating, Rick.

In comparison to that article, I am a virgin. I should change my name to Bringing Down the Mean.

I should change my name to Bringing Down the Mean.

But not the Median! At least you have that.

According to my statistics, in comparison to that article I am a ginormous slut.

I am Robin.