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Women are from Sea World, men are from the ocean Archives

Women are from Sea World, men are from the ocean

For a book I was writing about a school for exotic animal trainers, I started commuting from Maine to California, where I spent my days watching students do the seemingly impossible: teaching hyenas to pirouette on command, cougars to offer their paws for a nail clipping, and baboons to skateboard.

I listened, rapt, as professional trainers explained how they taught dolphins to flip and elephants to paint. Eventually it hit me that the same techniques might work on that stubborn but lovable species, the American husband.

The central lesson I learned from exotic animal trainers is that I should reward behavior I like and ignore behavior I don't. After all, you don't get a sea lion to balance a ball on the end of its nose by nagging. The same goes for the American husband.
. . .
... throw him a mackerel.

"What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage," by Amy Sutherland, The New York Times, June 25, 2006

. . .

July 6, 2006 10:27 AM    Humor

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