Singles Day

Today (September 26, 2026) is National Singles Day, the Saturday during Singles Week.

I used to celebrate National Singles Day/Week every year, when I was single. 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.)

I was rejected hundreds and hundreds of times by women, including 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. When more than 400 women described me as "unattractive," I started to believe it.

When I was single, I read many books on women and thought 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. It did make women friendly toward me, but not that friendly. When a man wears a wedding ring, he automatically becomes more attractive to women.

I discovered a fascinating fact that I wish that I had known during my romantically dry decades. 80 percent of men are invisible to women. 80 percent of women compete for the same top 20 percent of men. It's even worse now. It's called hypergamy. So, fellas, women aren't rejecting us. They just don't see us.

Sept. 26, 2026