Survey says: we'll keep your answers "completely" anonymous
Pew, phew - all the answers to questions you were afraid to ask
The last time we got together we were talking about the survey I had been sent a while ago from the folks at the Pew Research Center, an outfit that is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to conducting surveys.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, some of the word choices made by the Pew People made me veer off course and we all ended up at Sacramento City College, where I once taught English and journalism many years ago.
The "Comments" section here ended up with all sorts of interesting observations, causing one reader to note that the whole discussion reminded her of that cute and clever book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves."
That book received a tremendous amount of critical acclaim, as it should have, but my one problem with it is that I didn't write it first, because the now-rich author was literally picking words and ideas and paragraphs directly from my brain.
I'm considering a lawsuit, but I'm not sure "jealousy" is a proper cause of action.
The bottom line here is that I never got to discuss the Pew survey and some of its outstanding questions, and I just know the Pulitzer committee is waiting for me to complete that column pronto.
I took this survey once before when I was employed by another party, so some of these answers may be similar to what appeared in my first bite at the Pew apple.