I fail to discern any sex in the CBO, so I suppose the CBO is an it. The CBO neither lusts nor exudes allure; it (see?) grinds the grist of facts against algorithm. Mark -----Original Message----- From: Wolfgang Breitling [mailto:breitliw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 6:51 PM To: Mark W. Farnham Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: OT: Bonusquestion - is the CBO a He, a She, an It, or a hermaphrodite Mark, very nice. I agree with your conclusion; instinctively without having put as much thought or articulation into it. I suppose that triggered the question because the OP referred to Oracle as a "he". Now for the bonus question in the subject - before Steve shuts the thread down :-) Here too I have an instinctive opinion. For an explanation/excuse - it's 30 degrees outside (Celsius - 86 F for our metrically challenged friends in the US of A) which is rather rare up here in the north. I believe my brain has shriveled up and only silly thoughts remained. We're more used to -30 (Celsius = -22 F) as Cary can attest to. At 04:01 PM 7/31/2005, Mark W. Farnham wrote: >In Hellenic (Greek/Western) cultural history, the Oracles of Apollo at >Delphi are arguably the preeminent reference of "Oracle." > >So I'm thinkin' Oracle is a high flyin' she, which partly explains why she >thinks a zero length string is a null value but simultaneously understands >that a numeric zero is not a null. Regards Wolfgang Breitling Centrex Consulting Corporation http://www.centrexcc.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l