Many, many emails. It’s interesting to note the numbers of reader responses you get to different kinds of postings. Sure, people are interested in politics, science, religion, even math. The thing people are *I*N*T*E*R*E*S*T*E*D* in, though, is people, most especially anything to do with people of opposite sexes getting on, or not, with each other.

It’s plain from the email bag that the issue here is women (a) postponing partner-seeking till it’s too late (i.e. the man pool has been winnowed down to cranky bachelors, freaks, and bitter divorce survivors), and (b) having way too high expectations.

The following (edited to protect the innocent) is typical of many.

“Derb—I suspect that when the smart, attractive 34-year-old woman says ‘I can’t find a man’ she means she can’t find a man who is up to her standards. I also suspect those standards are pretty high. Just check out some of the profiles on yahoo.com to see what I’m talking about.
“I started looking through those a few years ago after my wife died and I couldn’t believe the exacting specifications most of these women had for a mate. I was excluded from at least 75 percent of them just by the height requirement. I’m [unimpressive height] and 5′9″ seemed to be the minimum. I soon figured out that finding a woman willing to marry a [fifty-plus]-year-old man with an adopted [preteen]-year-old granddaughter was going to be an exercise in futility if I went the domestic route.
“Which is why I’ve been married to a beautiful [East Asian female] for two years now. She’s also the best mother any daughter could ask for. She’s only [really unimpressive height].”

Reading emails like that–I’ve just read a bunch of them–it’s pretty plain that the unattached women of America are wilfully ignoring a huge stock of first-rate potential husbands. Their loss.