Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site boulder.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!pesnta!qumix!ittatc!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!hao!nbires!boulder!jon From: jon@boulder.UUCP (Jonathan Corbet) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Opening line statistics Message-ID: <396@boulder.UUCP> Date: Sat, 17-Aug-85 20:31:39 EDT Article-I.D.: boulder.396 Posted: Sat Aug 17 20:31:39 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 04:45:26 EDT Reply-To: jon@boulder.UUCP (Jon Corbet) Organization: National Center for Atmospheric Research Lines: 33 [ I thought some of you net.singles might get a kick out of this...] The information contained herein is pulled from the September issue of _Harper's_; they in turn grabbed it from "The Language of Singles Bars" by Thomas Murray, in the Spring issue of _American_Speach_. Therein, Murray summarizes his research into opening lines used in singles bars (what a fascinating subject to get paid to study..why didn't I think of that?). The total sample space is about 3000 opening lines, which he (somewhat arbitrarily, I think) divided up into categories. The results are neatly presented in this table: Type or | 8:00- | 9:00- | 10:00-| 11:00-| 12:00- Function| 9:00 | 10:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 1:00 --------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Compliments | 11 | 14 | 51 | 127 | 240 Advertisements| | | | | / Declarations| 136 | 151 | 211 | 214 | 256 Questions | 207 | 214 | 302 | 329 | 373 Conversational| 273 | 240 | 127 | 123 | 195 Propositions | 81 | 139 | 437 | 547 | 674 The author states that compliments (1) were the least popular form of opening, and (2) they are generally a sign of desperation, which (I guess) explains the exponential increase in their use as the evening wears on... Unfortunately, he did no analysis on the success rate of each type of opening line :-). jon -- Jonathan Corbet National Center for Atmospheric Research, Field Observing Facility {seismo|hplabs}!hao!boulder!jon (Thanks to CU CS department)