Summertime is traditionally a slow time for news. There just isn't a whole lot going on, so enterprising reporters tend to delve a little deeper to find a topic to write about. This can often lead to some really good reporting, or some truly strange stories.

Last week, one of the more bizarre stories of the summer came across the wires. Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin set out to answer a question that has been the subject of numerous arguments: do women talk more than men?

Yes, I know you all have been anxiously awaiting the answer to this question, backed up with solid, scientific evidence. Your prayers have been answered.

After recording the daily conversations of 400 university students in the United States and Mexico over several days, researchers discovered that females spoke about 16,215 words each day, and males uttered an average of 15,669 words, which was considered a statistical dead heat.

Sleep easy, America. It's all been sorted out, all scientific and everything. Can you imagine having to listen to the conversations of 400 college students and having to count the words? Talk about needing caffeine!

The experts were hoping to debunk the long held belief that, according to the researchers women are "chatterboxes" and "that they love talking much more than men."

Participants in the study wore a recorder that automatically clicked on every 12 minutes to record whatever was being said -- or not said -- for the next 30 seconds. The 19- to 25-year-olds in the study wore the voice recorders for several days each.

The Austin researchers admit that it's still possible that differences in the amount of talking between the sexes may emerge as people age. They also admit that the study's focus on college students might also ignore behavioral differences between men and women based on social class.

Researchers at Yale report " ample evidence that gossip is just as popular a topic of conversation (if not more so) among men as it is among women." The Yale researchers feel that stereotypes about women talking more come from women talking more about relationships. Studies, according to the folks at Yale, suggest that during emotional conflict, guys get quiet and women talk more.

Even though the tendency of males to "clam up" in these private disputes doesn't carry over to other social contexts, people may generalize that men are withdrawn by nature. One of the biggest complaints in heterosexual relationships that women have is the 'unforthcomingness' of their male partners, according to researchers.

But if a topic arises in an argument that men want to talk about, men will become more verbal.

So, what do men talk about that would bring their total number of words to equal the amount of talking that women engage in? Researchers found that subject matter was key. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Marianne LaFrance, a professor of psychology and women's gender and sexuality studies at Yale University, says "Just get guys talking about sports or finance or lawnmowers -- then you've got another category of chatterboxes."

At the risk of sounding like an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond," studies like this do precious little to advance understanding between the genders. Men and women are different. It's a fact of nature. The growing use of words by men is an effort, in my opinion, to simply find a way to coexist and adapt to their changing environment.

There's a reason researchers used college students. If a study like this were conducted with people my age, I think the results would be different. If you studied people of my parents' generation, the results would be different.

If this study was meant to dispel the stereotype of women being "chatterboxes," I believe it has done so. Having said that, could we move on to something more important, like curing cancer, or will we be forced to endure studies about who replaces the toilet paper and which way the paper comes off of the roll?

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.