I have the flu. Or something that started out like the flu and is now more like a head cold accompanied by the most annoying dry cough. You know, the kind of cough that is sort of irritating throughout the day but manages to get much worse as soon as you lie down at night and try to sleep? I hope it goes away quickly. At least my stomach isn’t involved any more, which is a relief.

So I’ve been trying to take it easy over the last few days and have enjoyed catching up on some Norwegian news. A few articles captured my attention, including this one I saw in several newspapers about a traffic safety study that concluded that young men should not be allowed to drive until they are at least 23 years old. According to the senior researcher, this is because the brains of young men do not mature until they are that age; before that, they are incapable of making good decisions about safety and risk.

I was relieved to see that most of the comments in response to this article don’t dispute the suggestion that young men are, in general, bad drivers. They tended mostly to, 1) doubt the likelihood of the government ever really banning under-23-year-old males from driving while allowing young women to continue to get their licenses; 2) maintain that women of all ages are equally crap drivers (I resent that!!); 3) question the logic of forbidding young men to drive while still forcing them into military service (mandatory in Norway for all men at age 18.5 but is also, apparently, easy to avoid); and, finally, 4) question the intelligence of the researchers who conducted the study.

Personally---and I have written about this before---I find the driving standard among ALL drivers in Norway shockingly poor, so it’s hard for me to single out teenage boys as the worst culprits. If anything, this study gives boys a biological excuse for driving like idiots; how everyone else explains what they’re doing out there on the roads, now that’s a study I’d like to read!

In any case, I do think it’s pretty darn obvious that boys mature more slowly than girls. Anyone who has children or spends any time around children could probably attest to this. At the preschool where I worked in San Francisco, it would be commonplace for little girls to run up to me with a piece of paper and say, “Look! Look what I drew!” I would examine their picture of a house, a star, a horse or whatever and say, “Oh, it’s wonderful. Tell me about it.” And they would tell me a little bit about what they drew.

When boys said, “Look! Look at what I drew,” their paper would inevitably be covered in scribbles. I would say, “Ahh, yes, it’s great! What is it?” They would yell, “It’s a space ship!” and then they would grab it, crumple it into a ball and run off looking for someone to throw it at. Kind of endearing, really.

Here’s a funny look at the girl vs. boy baby development by one of my favorite comedians, Michael McIntyre. Go about 5.45 minutes in and have a giggle.