All right Kathryn, I’ll have a go. Tangentially to one of JPod’s recent posts, I’d like to point out that men don’t necessarily shun hard manual labor because it’s hard and manual, though they may of course shun it because it’s badly paid. A lot of men actually like physical work. Believe it or not, tapping a computer keyboard in some air-conditioned office cube is not the ideal of the good working life for everyone.

That old seventies bestseller The Thorn Birds had a character whose ambition in life was to cut sugar cane — extremely hard, grueling work — and this in Australia, where it’s hot. But that’s what the guy wanted to do. He loved doing it, and competing with other like-minded guys to see who could cut the most cane. There really are people like that. I’ve met some, and I’m sure you have. (Yes, I know, he’s a negative character in the book. But then, the book was written by a woman….)