SINGLE STATE OF THE UNION

For those of you who might not know it, September 16 - 22 is National Singles Week, which means it’s the one week out of the year when you don’t have to take any crap from your mom or your married best friend for not sporting a three-pound rock on your left hand (at least if you’re a woman). Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to deal with the usual media abuse.

Case in point, a story in the South Mississippi Sun Herald talks about how National Singles Week was launched as a way to celebrate singleness and shed the various stigmas associated with the single life, then goes on to quote a bunch of statistics about online dating from Match.com. Which seems a bit akin to having Nicole Ritchie offer insights on National Body Image Week.

But enough kvetching.  More to the point is Bella DePaulo’s Huffington Post essay on Forbes’ annual Best Cities for Singles lineup and what she thinks truly makes a a city great for singles. Check it out and feel free to send Bella (one of our esteemed Single State of the Union contributors) your thoughts on the subject.  Happy singling!

Here’s a link to my latest column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on single women and their dogs (or as I like to refer to it, the love that dare not bark its name). Huge thanks to PI news artist David Badders for the fabulous artwork and to my good friend, Michelle, for letting me tell her tail … er … tale.  As always, thanks for the read, folks!

Reviews for Single State of the Union are still trickling in, the latest from the Feminist Review blog. You can read the full (mixed) review here , or just check out my favorite highlights:

One of Single State of the Union’s chief strengths is the diversity of its contributors’ experiences and viewpoints. Rather than a collection of twenty- and thirty-something Carrie Bradshaw wannabes, the authors represent a range of ages (I was surprised at how many were over fifty), relationship experience and sexual identity … Single State of the Union is an enjoyable read, often amusing and at times touching …

In other Single State news, I was recently a guest on Alissa Kriteman’s podcast “Just for Women: Dating, Relationships and Sex.”  We talked about all kinds of fun stuff — the Single State anthology, the bias against single women, the history of dating, divorce, matrimonial swindlers, alpha females, bunny-boiling psychotics, the list goes on and on. Here’s a link, if you want to check it out (you can either read a transcript or listen to the interview in its entirety - complete with all those fabulous ’ums’!).   Later, chicas!