Music to My Ears

For those of you with a husband/boyfriend like mine, who seems to selectively listen (he hears "dinner's ready" with perfect clarity but "please pick up your dirty socks" not so well), apparently, there may be a scientific reason.

University of Sheffield researchers in the U.K. discovered recently that men's brains are not designed to hear women's voices. Apparently, when a guy hears another guy the soundwaves go directly to the speech part of the brain, used to interpret speech. But because women's voices have more soundwaves or something like that, men hear them first as music, not as speech, and have to work harder to figure out what women are saying.

When I told my husband this, he said "Oh yeah, the sound of your voice is music to my ears." I think he might have been being sarcastic there.

But, it makes sense to me. Women have more complicated voices. I think it's because we're just more advanced. It's no wonder our speech patterns are more complex - we have more complex things to say!

Okay, that's the science lesson for today. It just goes to show how I am easily distracted by weird, random news.

And guys - don't forget - if you donate at least $25 to the Red Cross for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and send me your donation receipts at cara@caralockwood.com before the end of September you could win a signed copy of "I Do (But I Don't)." Just email me your donation receipts at cara@caralockwood.com. I'll be picking winners on October 1.