Class begins now

Good morning, starshine! The Earth says, 'hello!'

It's time for the world to start to make more sense. That's right, it's time for Logic Class!

Since this is your first class, we'll start off slowly, with some seemingly simple (yet somehow very tricky!) stuff.

Let's begin with knocking on the door of someone's home. It's Sunday morning around 7 a.m. The front door is closed and visibly locked (with not just one but two padlocks that you can easily see), and the curtains are drawn. You've been told by your boss to go next door and borrow the VERY important Sunday-morning item of a BOWL.  What do you do?

a) Stand in front of the door, frozen like a deer in headlights until the occupant finally opens the curtains getting startled by your creepy, stalker-like stance.

b) Dial-a-friend! Whip out your cell phone and call someone for help, proceeding to talk very loudly directly in front of the front door.

c) Knock loudly on the front door, incessantly for five minutes straight, until the occupant finally trudges to see who would be rude enough to do such a thing at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning. 

d) Realize the occupant is probably either still sleeping or just enjoying her early Sunday morning and doesn't want to be disturbed, thus -- and I know this can get complicated here -- the locked door and drawn curtains.

Believe it or not, the correct answer is d. 

Yes, I can see by your puzzled looks that you're just not sure why this would be the right answer.  Let's begin by looking at the situation LOGICALLY. Sunday morning at 7 a.m. Yes, I realize that YOU have been at work for an hour,  cleaning and cooking for the guys that live next door to me, but not all people begin their Sundays at such an early hour. Plus, when their door is locked with the curtains drawn, this usually means the person inside is either still sleeping or doesn't yet want to face the day outside their apartment, even if you know the person is usually awake and up by 5 a.m. most days. 

Are you starting to get it? Closed curtains + locked door = do not disturb. But what if you do make the mistake of knocking on the door in this situation? Well, know that the use of just a few knocks is quite sufficient. You do not need to take it upon yourself to wake up the occupant with continuous loud knocking.  In fact, this is considered rude (I hear your gasps of disbelief, but trust me, it's true).  Unless you are a very close friend or family member or there's an emergency (and, to answer your next question, no there is no such thing as a 'bowl emergency'), usually purposely trying to wake a person on an early Sunday morning to borrow a bowl is considered quite impolite. 

Are you starting to feel overwhelmed? I know it's a lot of information, so we'll stop here for today, but not without homework.

Your assignment is this:

Imagine that you are writing a formal assignment to be handed in to your (female) English instructor, who is the person who will give you a score not only for your assignment but also for the entire semester-long course. On a scale of 1 to 10, how appropriate (1 = not appropriate at all; 10 = completely appropriate) is it to write the following in your assignment:

"Most women are weak in their thinking capability."

Good luck! We'll have fun discussing this tomorrow.