TechnoGirl

Dear Madame Toujours,

Last night, I asked my boyfriend Kyle to install my new network card and set up my email and Web browser. Kyle said he didn't have time and told me about his friend Tim's girlfiend Nina who just installed a new motherboard and CPU in her PC. He was very excited. I think I saw beads of sweat on his upper lip.

Madame Toujours, I have to draw the line somewhere. I can change the oil in my car and program the VCR, but a man has to be good for something. If it weren't for Kyle, I wouldn't even have this dumb PC. I was going to go for one of those pretty colored Macs, but Kyle thought we should both have PCs so he could help me maintain mine.

Plus, it's nice to feel I can depend on Kyle. Doesn't this Nina person realize girls like her are raising the bar for the rest of us? Is it fair for Kyle to make me feel inadequate because I can't build a computer from scratch? Do I have to be a techno-nerd just to keep my man? Where will it all end?

Sincerely,

Trying to Keep up with Nina

Chere Mlle. Trying,

Quelle domage. The new liberation for the women, it is sometimes tres difficile, n'est pas? Bien sur it is being all very well if you are building solar powered Mars orbiters out of the common kitchen utensils, but while this is very satisfying, it is not perhaps so much the big romance.

Possibly, you are thinking that the solution for the problem is to be hiring the large, Eastern European woman to break for Mlle Nina the knees. Please be calling off the hit. This is not the creative solution.

If I am understanding correctly what is for you the problem, this is not so much the question of the recombobulation of the technical thingies which you can be learning to do for yourself anyway. No, for you, this is the issue of the security.

You are wishing to know that M. Kyle, he is loving you for your bosoms and your sense of the humor not for the silly technical things that are becoming obsolete every six months so that you are always having to learn them all over again.

What you are forgetting is that someday, your bosoms, they will be obsolete, and he will grow used to your sense of humor, but the technical expertise, it is always new and exciting.

Here is what you must do. Advertise in the newspapers that you are wishing to assemble the technological support group for the female persons. Take turns meeting at the homes of the members. Make the schedule to decide who is bringing the refreshments such as scones and eclairs. Serve international coffees. Meet for lunch at the cafes chic. Some members may wish to bring their quilting or their needlepoint.

Possibly you are wondering how all of this is helping you with the technological things. Do not be silly. You were not really wanting to talk about the technological things anyway.

Bon Chance, Mlle. Trying, and perhaps you can be asking Mlle. Nina to help you to install the computer doohickies.