Today Is ...

Today (September 27, 2025, at home) is National Singles Day, the Saturday during Singles Week. I hope my cautionary tale helps anyone who is single and hoping to snag a little romance.

I used to celebrate National Singles Day/Week every year, when I was single. Now that I have been blessed with a wonderful wife, with me being married for the first and only time 22 days before my 45th birthday, since February 4, 2006, after about five years of dating, I fondly and not-so-fondly remember my single decades.

I am actually proud to tell you that I was without female companionship (between my only two girlfriends) from age 20 to age 40 (alone from February 1982 to November 2000) and not by choice, so I am quite intimate with the (good and bad) aspects of single life. (Please, no pity.)

During my lifetime (prior to my first date with my wife on November 10, 2000), I was rejected hundreds and hundreds of times by women. This includes 414 rejections by women in 18 months with a video dating service in northern New Jersey in the mid-1990s, when I was in my mid-30s. I still wear my rejections as badges of honor.

Almost all of these women chose the word "unattractive" on the form as the reason for not wanting to meet with me for a date. I was able to go on a few interesting, but unsuccessful dates, but when around 400 women described me as "unattractive," I will admit that I started to believe it.

I never judge anyone regarding their appearance. Being a journalist, I'll talk with anyone because everyone has fascinating aspects of their lives and because I always needed to have information to write articles for my jobs. As per romance, writing about chemicals for an international weekly magazine is not exactly a sexy job. I loved that job (from 1992 to 1996) because, as I partially jokingly say, it made me appear smarter than I actually am.

When I was single, I never totally abandoned the idea of romance. I always had even the slightest bit of hope, thinking that I would one day make some woman a good second husband. I kept on trying: reading books on the subject and thinking of innovative ways to get myself on the proper side of romance.

I even wore a fake wedding ring for a few months twice in the mid- to late 1990s to get women to be friendly toward me: once while living in New Jersey and working in New York City; and once living and working in Florida. Women seemed to be more friendly toward me, but not that friendly. When a man wears a wedding ring, he automatically becomes more attractive because he is viewed as "normal" by women. The ring lets women know that at least one other woman thinks of him as normal. He suddenly becomes less threatening.

I sometimes say that my only regret in my life is that I did NOT lie to women when I was single because I would have been able to go on more dates. Perhaps my fake wedding rings were an example of misrepresentation. Anyway, that method proved to be unsuccessful.

I never did find the Rosetta Stone of Romance. Luckily and fortunately, my wife answered my America Online (AOL) personal ad.

I must tell you that I recently discovered a fascinating piece of information that I wish that I had known during my romantically dry 1980s and 1990s.

80 percent of women compete for the same top 20 percent of men. It's called hypergamy. That means 80 percent of men are invisible to women. So, fellas, women aren't rejecting us. They just don't see us. We just blend into the background. They don't even know we exist.

(I fancy myself to be an amateur anthropologist.)

Thank you for reading. I just wanted to tell you of my romantic exploits on National Singles Day.

September 27, 2025, at home

I like chocolate milk, specifically made with Ovaltine or Bosco, because it tastes like my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s.

September 27, 2025, at home

I love corned beef hash and fried eggs for breakfast. My dad did, too.

September 27, 2025, at home

Forgiving someone is more for the person doing the forgiving than for the person receiving the forgiveness. Just forgive, and get on with your life.

September 27, 2025, at home

Today's date seems a bit early to be celebrating scarfs. I guess it depends on where you live.

September 27, 2025, at home

You can crush a can today, if you want.

September 27, 2025, at home