I sometimes play a dinner party game where I ask people whether they would rather spend 12 months in a prison cell with Michael Jackson or Michael Barrymore.

It's a truly awful decision and it started out as a bit of fun one idle day, but I have been struck by how it genuinely divides people. They argue so stridently that it would be better to be locked up with Jacko for X reason, or Barrymore for Y reason.

Given that humans will always ultimately tend to define themselves by reference to other humans, is this perhaps an incipient personality profiling device? Maybe those who have a Barrymore preference are better suited to certain types of work and environments, and those who have a Jacko preference are better off doing something different?

Clearly Battle of the Michaels is currently relatively unsophisicated because it is only bi-polar. But how about if we introduced other Michaels, to help further distinguish between preferences? Of course I'm being tongue-in-cheek, but is describing yourself as 'ESTJ' (MBTI - see Dan's blog below) or 'Red' (Insights Discovery) really any less weird and bizarre than describing yourself as a Barrymore-Stipe-Caine?