I am proud to announce the winner of the Ask Allison official contest!

And the winner is (as we all guessed) -
Mr. James Paul McKay, with his entry Swank-O-Rama:The Cocktail Revolution Homepage!

Check in next week when I divulge more secret details, such as: what theprize is, the runnerup/honorable mention entries, and a list of all the sites submitted! Thanksfor playing.

So, what do you do, you're wondering, when you're bored at work? It's latein the afternoon, too soon to leave without being noticed, buttoo late to start any new projects.

Do you throw the afternoon away dawdling and surfing through worthless websites? Doyou type out love letters tothat hunk in the next cubicle,just to find yourself deleting them in embarrassment, without ever printing one?

No, I say to you. What you need to do is hang out, relax, sip a cocktail (ifyou can sneak one in), and chatwith me and my friends.

Club Wired, Tuesday, 28 November at 4 p.m. PST (01:00GMT) Let's diss the losers together, shall we? The leftovers have been left out long enough!

Dear Allison,
When asked whatwomen look for in a man, experts are more likely than not to say, "emotionalsupport." (Of course this is a generalization but don't blame me, blame theexperts.) But how true is this really? Aren't most women (the good-looking ones,anyway) really looking for a guy who they're not embarrassed to be seen with?That is, don't women really choose men based on what the man will do for themsocially instead of personally?
Beefier

Dear Beefy,
True, I know many women whowant to look good when they go out, and that includes their date as well as theirhairdo ... buton the whole, I tend to agree with the experts. Sorry to disappoint, as I'm sureyou were hoping for a superficial, easyagreement, but really, if someone makes you feel good, you're more apt to lookgood (no matter how ugly you were when the doctor slapped your baby butt).

Dear Allison my love,
Why do younever answer my questions?
Stranger in the night

Dear Stranger,
My mother told me never totalk to strangers.

Dear Allison,
You have beenyammering here on your page about a lack of females on the web. well, here i am.i am female, and yes, i am a net freak. i spend mucho time reading illiterateletters from dumbasses who can access internet sites better than they can spell.who cares what sex you are on the Net, anyway? it's not like one can prove it.
becky

Becky,
I'm not asking you toprove it, dear. I'm not looking for proof. What I'm looking for isbalance. Who cares what sex you are on the Net?On that note, who cares what sexyou are in real life? Look around you. Are you treated exactly the sameas the boy sitting next to you?
There are differences (good ones!) betweenboys and girls. We think differently, we act differently, we have differenttalents. Why not share the differences and find the balance.
In answer toyour question, "Who cares what sex you are on the Net?" I care.

Dear Allison!
Is grunge reallydead?
Spider Boy

Spider,
Iknow its hard to fathom, but I fear the end is near. The time has come, boys, to"fly your flannel" at half-mast.

Dear Allison,
I completely agreewith you about the need for balance in cyberspace - and everywhere, for thatmatter. But do you really need to make anti-male (mis-androgic?) statements like"women are the smarter ones anyway?" Your column this week seemed to be about howwomen deserve respect for being themselves; why can't you afford us men thesame? I'd like to think I could co-exist with you without having to worry abouthow you secretly think I'm less able. I say we leave the gender-bashing to theolder generations and give each other what we both deserve: mutual respect.Whattya say?
sabat@zoom.com

Sorry sabat, I was just being sassy ... musta been PMS. Butanyway, you're absolutely right. Mutual respect. But someone once said, "theonly way to make a man believe you're his equal, is to prove you're superiorfirst." You don't seem like the sort of man I'd secretly think less able though,in fact, you sound rational and practical as any woman I know. :)
I'll try,sabat. I'll try to be good and leave thegender bashing to our elders from now on.

Dear Allison,
How much sex isenough?
Wondering

Seems in thisbusiness, ain't nobody outthere who can get enough.

Hi Allison,
This isn't so much aquestion, but rather a reply to your column. Why aren't enough women inengineering? Well, I'm an engineering student at SFU, and we had a large numberof women in our program, but slowly the number dwindled, why? It's not becausethey weren't encouraged, or because they were discriminated against (in fact,they were usually favored), most of them were very bright and could complete thecourses with no problems, so why did they leave? Because it simply didn'tinterest them. Some went on to science, others to business. People are now inthe mood that something's wrong if you're an intelligent woman and you don't gointo hard-core subject areas; perhaps, they just don't care about that stuff. Imean, no one ever notices how there's an imbalance in the number of men in, let'ssay, dance or cooking or even housekeeping. It's not because we aren'table to do it; it's because it doesn't interest us either.
PS: Engineeringisn't that fun, even if you do like it. ;)
brendon@sfu.ca

Perhaps I have more experience in the danceworld than you, or perhaps I'm just a tad more observant, but have you ever beento a dance performance? Ever notice how many men there are on stage? Ever noticewhen they outnumber the women? No? Well, dear boy, youjust aren't paying attention.
Andcooking? Why, every wage-earning chef I've ever met was male. Housecleaning I can't comment on,as I'm not so fond of that sort of thing, but there is an imbalance in thesciences. I was told in school that as a girl, I shouldn't worry much about that physicsstuff. Engineering may not be that fun, but neither is cleaning the house.The ratio is evening out.

Signed:
Go answer the questions Allison didn't.