Говори и пиши как The Eсonomist

The most important career choice a woman makes is whom she marries. A supportive spouse can help you excel; a jealous or lazy one may hold you back.

In the mid-1800s, before the advent of negatives and half-tone printing, a photo of a naked prostitute cost more than engaging her for sex. Not until 1953, when Hugh Hefner launched Playboy with a nude photograph of Marilyn Monroe, did porn go mass-market.

When men announce they are about to have a child, they are simply congratulated; when women do, they are congratulated and then asked what they plan to do about work.

50% of marriages end in divorce, the other 50% end in death. So take your pick.

How do robots have sex? By swapping software "genotypes" via infrared communications, ideally when facing each other 30cm apart. Not exact­ly a salty punchline.

Cuttlefish are cross-dressers, the male argonaut (a pelagic octo­pus) has a detachable, projectile penis, dolphins are in flagrante acrobats, and group sex erupts (where else?) on the California coast twice a year when tens of thousands of grunions disport themselves on the beach. Led by the moon and tides, the small fish fling themselves ashore. The female digs a hole in the sand with her tail, backs in, lays eggs, and waits while up to eight males snuggle up and release their sperm.

Loneliness, conversely, can be deadly: one study found it did more dam­age to health than smoking.

Dogs, unlike people, are capable of pure love — at least according to Freud.

Britain leads the rich world in indicators associated with solitary life­styles: gym-going (as opposed to team sports), divorce, smartphone and tablet adoption (replacing the family television set), self-employment, online shopping, eating alone, meal-skipping and the declines of both the pub and the nuclear family. Clubs of all sorts, from churches and political parties to golf clubs and trade unions, are shrinking.

If backward time travel were possible, some fool would no doubt try testing the grandfather paradox, another invention of time- travelling fiction writers. In this, a visitor to the past kills his or her grand-father before the conception of the protagonist's own parent, meaning the protagonist could never have been born, and the murder could not have taken place.

In the old days if you wanted a promotion you wore a short skirt, now it's the other way round.

More than 90% of presidents and prime ministers are male, as are nearly all big corporate bosses. Men dominate finance, technol­ogy, films, sports, music and even stand-up comedy. In much of the world they still enjoy social and legal privileges simply be­cause they have a Y chromosome.

What is a "rampant homosexual"? What makes him rampant, and do rampant heterosexuals exist as well?

Well-to-do parents fear two things: that their children will die in a freak accident, and that they will not get into Harvard. The first fear is wildly exaggerated. The second is not, but staying awake all night worrying about it will not help — and it will make you miserable.

Michael Burgess, suggested that fetuses are already masturbating by 20 weeks — although only male ones.

Some transgender people do not go to the loo all day because they have been harassed, assaulted or kicked out of one. This can result in dehydration, urinary-tract infections and kidney problems.

Women are just men with less money.

In 1939, 10% of American brides received a diamond engagement ring. By the end of the century 80% did. 26% of young American brides say they dreamed about their future engagement rings years before beginning a relationship.

A pun, like porn, is defined less by intention than by reception.

Tax reform is always the bridesmaid and never the bridem.

The hijab helps women be treated for their minds, not their looks.

Over Sabbath meals, Israelis who are worried about growing intol­erance discuss whether to put their children or their country first.

It's like a big house with only one bathroom, and daddy's been in there too long.

Each suburban housewife, wrote Betty Friedan in 1963, struggles with a single question as she makes the beds, shops for groceries, chauffeurs children about and lies beside her husband at night: "Is this all?"

Confucious said that while a man's parents were alive, he should not travel far afield.

Will fatherhood make me happy?

A husband follows his wife and another man to a hotel room. Through the keyhole he sees the pair embrace. As they fling off their clothes his wife's underwear catches on the doorknob, blocking his view of what happens next — and leaving his faith in her fidelity intact.

Even in Mecca and Medina people have intercourse.

Armpits4August, a campaign, encourages women to grow underarm hair for a month to challenge norms of beauty. Members of La Barbe, a shock troop of French feminists set up in 2008, infiltrate male-dominated meetings wearing beards and derisively congratulate the men on their supremacy.