Around 1880, a guy named L. L. Zamenhof developed a language called Esperanto.* It was meant to be an easy-to-learn universal language. Although today there are about a million or so people that speak Esperanto, it never really took off as Zamenhof had hoped. I think one of the reasons for this is that half the world already has a universal language: sports.
Men, who are in general poor at small talk, often use sports as a kind of lingua franca to talk to each other in situations that would otherwise be filled with awkward silence. Even men who can't find Canada on a map or name the Vice President can go to any bar and strike up a conversation about sports. The sports conversation is often used as a survival mechanism in social situations such as weddings, office parties, and pretty much any time women start talking about something that most guys couldn't care less about.
Part of this phenomenon can be accounted for by this fact that a copy of the sports page can be found in pretty much any public men's bathroom.** I'm not sure what about sports and taking a crap go so well together but there you have it (ladies - trust me, handling a newspaper that has spent all day on the floor next to a toilet is the LEAST disgusting thing that goes on in the men's room). This means that even men who aren't really interested in sports are nevertheless prepared to talk about it at length.
*Not to be confused with the excellent song Desperado by the Eagles, although I think this is a great idea for Weird Al Yankovic
**Mindy/Christy - Ladies, I think we need a post on the reading materials found in the women's room.
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Reading material found in women's restrooms: nada. Except for those ads they put on the inside of the bathroom door - captive audience (brilliant). I make a point not to stay in there long enough to need a whole lot of reading material. Men are weird.
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