gonzai | Gonzai Feels Evil

And unleashes on a pollster. Yup, got called by a political pollster today who is probably quite sorry she got me. See, first off, she asked for the 'youngest member of the household.' That would be me, so I took the poll. At the end it turns out they were only looking for people under 40. Well, you didn't mention that. Tough tiddlywinks on you. Next, she had the microphone pretty much in her mouth and was p-p-p t-t-t in my ear. I explained to her the proper placement of her microphone. She didn't expect that. Then the questions all had answers of 'very positive', 'somewhat positive', 'somewhat negative' and 'very negative'. This earned her a lecture from me about how a properly conducted poll must have a 'null' option - neutral, no opinion or don't know. (Her bad luck, catching a pol-sci major who took a course in public opinion.) I repeated that tidbit several times. Then in sorting the demographics, she asked for religion: the options were 'Catholic', 'Protestant', 'Jewish' or 'refused'. Time for a lecture on how there are plenty of people out there who are NOT one of those 3 religions. And answering 'none' or 'Muslim' etc is not refusing to answer the question. Back to the null option - you need an 'other' category. She had to check with her supervisor, who was equally surprised, and suddenly a 'none' category appeared. Thus I sent the pollster off into the night, thoroughly flustered. I'm mean :)