Hello people, one of Average American's comments prompted me to write this article, and this is a subject I have spent great lengths of time on (probably more than any rationally person should).  Exactly how much water is in the glass?

He said that he is a half full type person and that "lib and con" is a half empty type person.  It reminds me of a joke (a purdy stupid one mind you):

An optimist says that the glass is half full...
A pessimist says that the glass is half empty...
An engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be:)

Now, who's right?

Well, I think both the question and the answer are relative to the meaning that the orator is trying to achieve for a given situation.  I will give three such examples where one of the responses is generally more correct than the others.


1.  A husband trying to get his wife to fetch him a beer might say during the 4th quarter of a Sun's playoff game:

"hey honey, you need to quickly grab me another brew, for mine is half empty".

Notice that the half empty statement clearly states the importance of the half emptiness of his beer.  If he said the beer was half full, then she may not clearly interpret the statement as being of great importance to her desperate bread winner, and may fail to provide him with another beer in a timely manner.


2.  The man's wife in example number 1 may have another agenda though, telling her husband that she has deliberately left her stomach half full so that she could save room for cheesecake.

With that statement, she is clearly stating that her stomach is not yet full, therefore it needs cheesecake.

3.  So the man, desperately needing his other beer because it is now 3/4 empty sharply replies:

"Woman, your gut is not half full, it is twice as big as it needs to be".

Needless to say, the poor sap slept on the couch for the next week.