Wow, Shorin‚what did you say to the TIME reporter? Wonder why they didn’t use it?
The TIME link is taking forever to download, but I’ll take a look at it when it decided to appear on my screen . . .
Dearest Eve,
There’s a particularly strong social order that you’re screwing up. Your selected lifestyle means that there’s a perfectly good bachelor somewhere that’s being denied the opportunity to be regularly nagged. 
: where DID they put that damned exit??? :
I think I just wasn’t corporate enough, or too introspective, or too happy or something. Actually “my” reporter was just one of several contributing to the article, and I don’t think much of her stuff was used. Maybe next time I’ll try to be more outrageous than truthful and see if that works.
Some people are just loners. I know women where you could hear their biological clocks when you walked in the room, yet her older sister was never really bothered by it. I know guys who are eager to get married and have kids while they are in their late 30s. Some don’t care, like the single unattached life. Some of us just take it as it comes, and if we find someone, serendipity. If not, we survive.
And there was a time in the business world being a bachelor was being viewed as irresponsible, and you were expected to “settle down”.
And why is it a problem is 45% of women are single? Must be a similar percentage of men - is that a problem?
“And why is it a problem is 45% of women are single?”
—Who ever said it was a problem? I find it rather encouraging.
I don’t mind being single.
There are times that having a male companion to do things with (of course including having sex) is a nice thing. However, there are times where I just want to be alone.
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that women participate in business and industry so much more. 30 - 40 years ago this was not the case. Yes women worked but society was different then.
I am proud of my single status and at 32 it doesn’t bother me a bit if I end up staying single.
so THAT’S why there’s that annoying lack of balance in my life!
Thanks, SS, for ‘splainin’ that to me.
(Note to self: find someone to nag me incessantly)
Eve,
In the OP you quoted:
> so why does
the media (and our friends) make it seem like we’re half a person if we’re not part of a
couple, when there are so many of us?
and
> pitiable figure.
I agree with you it isn’t a problem, though you seemed to think some people (said media and friends)consider it one. If so, it’s their problem. I don’t find it intrinsically encouraging, it just doesn’t really matter. Certainly better than being unhappily married.
45% seems right judging by the women in my office.
as to the half a person, pitiful thing. i guess misery loves company. a happy single person, this can not be borne. how can they be truly happy with out annoying little things a spouse does?!?
>> Heck, I haven’t even had a date in a year. That is what bothers me, personally, about being single. <<
Yet, Michi, when I offered to take you out for dinner and a movie this week, your response was that you were more interested in my other offer of sex and foot rubs. But even if all you want is a physical relationship, I’m here for you. (Which I guess is the problem; I’m here and you’re there. But did I mention I’ll be in Florida next June?)
No, no…I am into movies and dinners and all that stuff too, don’t get me wrong…but right now I seem to have the sexual aspect of things more on my mind. 
Not till next JUNE?!?
Can I have the shirt? And you, in or out of it? Please?
BTW, I take 45% of women being single as an indication that I have a chance in hell of being with 45% of women.
Bear with me here, folks, as I play wif numbers (and my calculator . . .
Given that 3 billion women . . . that’s slightly less than 1.45 billion women. Given that approx 1 percent of them are over 100, that gives us 1.3365 billion women. Given that baby boomers make up 1/2 the female population, that’s 668,250,000 women. Given that a woman is defined (by me) as someone 18 or over, let’s halve that number to exclude minors, giving us 334,125,000 actual women.
Okay . . . so we’ve got women between 18 and 40. I don’t want a woman (right now, at this very moment, for purposes of numbers) over 25. that’s 7 years out of . . . 22. That gives us 106,312,500 women. Now, I’m not interested, for purposes of marriage, in those women who cannot speak English without at least some degree of clarity, nor am I interested in women who are more than 7,000 miles away from me. Given that the earth is 24,000 miles in circumference, and given that (not true, but let’s be kind to me) the earth is a perfect sphere, roughly 1/2 of the women on this earth (if we can assume a constant of population density for women, which we can’t, but oh well) are too far away from me. That gives us 53,156,250 women within 7,000 miles of me who are between 18 and 25.
Let’s further assume that of these single women, half are in relationships but not married. That cuts things down to 26,578,125 single women. Let’s further assume that a hearty 5 percent of those are lesbians or bisexual, giving us 25,249,219 (rounding up).
Let’s now assume that a quarter of those are interested in me both physically and otherwise, giving us 6,312,305 (again rounding up for the .68 woman, poor thing). And again make the number smaller because not all women are catholic, prolife and wanting children. So let’s put that number now at . . . 500,000. A nice round, easy number.
Not many women can afford to travel 7,000 miles to be with me, now that I think about it. And I can’t afford to do that either. So let’s say 50,000 of them can. Of those, let’s hope that 2,500 are totally attractive to me (don’t smoke or drink, and other things with which we need not concern ourselves).
I’m not that interested in an LDR, to be completely honest. So let’s totally obliterate that 7,000 mile thing and set it to . . . 350 miles. Not a horrible number. That takes away . . . 19 out of every 20 women. Giving us 125 women. 5 groups of 25. Not bad.
>> Not till next JUNE?!? <<
Sheesh, and women are always complaining men don’t give enough foreplay.
The alternative, Michi, is for you to visit New York this October for the Rochester DopeFest 2000. Dinner, movie, foot rub, and if it gets any farther than that we can leave it out of the minutes of the meeting.
You know, I was depressed about being a single guy*** before*** I opened this f*cking thread…
The single life can be a smidge lonely, so thank God for porn. And hookers. I’ve never tried the latter, but hey, it’s still nice to know that they’re there.
Well, people are getting married a bit (sometimes a lot)later, get divorced a bit more, and then there’s just socialy inept people such as myself, and when you add in widows and people below the marriage age, I could see how you could get 45%, even if you discount kids. Which they might not be doing.
Sex is like air. It’s not important, as long as you’re getting a regular supply.
This shallow, trite observation was brought to you by the Seinfeld Institite, fighting the blisteringly obvious and the virtue of underage women since 1992 
Well, ya know, I DO have a couple of weeks free after finals have to head back to MA at some point, but my contract just expired, so otherwise . . . I hate to think that there’s a woman suffering somewhere that I could help. I guess I’m just the caring type. Ah, Maru, you’re so kind.
I got a couple of former co-workers you can borrow, blessedwolf . . .
–
“So, do you like . . . comic books?”
The world continues to lambast me with perplexing information.
How can such stunningly attractive, pleasant, intelligent, funny women as Michi and Eve be single? Why is the world this way? Please explain? I shall go intensely doolally if sense is not returned to my world with an answer.
P.S. Either of you travelling to Australia any time soon? hopehope*
Hey Guano, check out Osip’s “Hey Michi, Over Here” thread, and make your pitch!
who has been single for something like sixteen years. She does whatever she wants whenever she wants (except when she is at work, of course), and has a nice little house all to herself and no one living with her to have to pick up after.
And then she went and met someone in a chat room, and they hit it off, and he will probably move in with her in December or so. He seems like a nice guy, but she will no longer be the envy of all her friends.
In answer to this, Eve, my sister would say “happenin’ babes.” Not too dignified, but works for her.