Anyone hear me last night?

Last night (Friday) I received an email asking if I wanted to be a guest on Curtis Sliwa's nationally-syndicated talk show on the ABC radio network. (WTKK, 96.9 in Boston) They wanted me to talk about my column that was published yesterday "Are you too busy to date?"

So I was on from 11:30-11:45 EST. It was fun, and I spoke with a caller named Ross, 53, from New Jersey.

Some people may remember that Curtis was the founder of the original Guardian Angels, back in the 1970s. I remember watching him on the old "Dick Cavett" show.

Heightism Redux

I have written more columns about women's prejudice against short men than any other subject.

One reason is that as my columns are somehow ciurculated and reprinted on the Internet, I often get responses from short men who have been the object of this prejudice.

Here are portions of a recent email that I received:

Man I read your article. I am so feeling everything u said there. It's true. women are such hypocrites. They talk (expletive deleted) about men being like this and like that, but they don t see the real monster: themselves...
My name is... well it doesn t matter. What matters is my height (5.5 ) At least this is all that matters to women. All women. By all women I mean something like 97 % of them. I 'm serious about this....This is one type of discrimination but short men get all sort of other discrimination... because of their height. As if it is something we can control ...
Short men get discriminated at their jobs also cause of their height. In sports also. In movie industry... It's crazy. It's more serious than racial discrimination. But mass media seems to address only racial issues. If I were black and got to be discriminated in an all white community, I would simply get out of that place and move.... BUT as a short person. Where the (expletive deleted) am I suposed to go? China? Even there, women act the same. Black women are the same. Polish women the same. Latinas the same. They all want tall men. Anyways, the conclusion is that I (and many other short men out there) suffered my whole life cause of discrimination like this and I think somebody should address this issue publically and seriously for it is a serious matter....

All that being said I want to THANK YOU for writing about this topic and I urge you to write more and try to go on TV with this so that awareness about this ISSUE.
Please excuse my poor english. I'm not from an english speaking country.

Some Reader Feedback

I know (from high tech "Googlish" research) that people are reading these blogs, but readers do not seem to be posting comments.

However, readers have been sending interesting comments and feedback to my columns to my email address (pennerst@hotmail.com). So I thought it would be interesting to post some of them here:

My recent column making fun of "Ten Easy Ways..." lists brought this feedback:

great article - that's (my husband's) pet peeve - he can't stand anything with that "5 easy ways to..." bullshit. Now if Oprah asked you to come on her show with the list.... would you create one? I'd do whatever she wanted for the publicity. She is an odd duck, yes?"

And a man wrote:

"very interesting that you should take on those "10 Ways'" list-makers in your latest column. It immediately made me think of a New Yorker article I read many years ago by Garrison Keillor. I remember that it was titled "The People vs. Jim,'"and it was Keillor's transcript of the trial of "Jim," who had made up so many of those lists in city magazines and other secondary outlets.

I remember that in it, Jim said he had come up with his last few lists because someone had threatened to put him in a list of "Ten People Who Used to Be Hot but Aren't Anymore." And the prosecutor, summing up, said: "Do you have any idea of the damage you've done, Jim? You've made people more stupid. Some of your readers can't even read paragraphs anymore unless they've got numbers in front of them." Jim responded: "How many? A lot?"

I promise to post other reader feedback on this blog!

Flowers Don't Always Work

One of the biggest mistakes any guy can make in a relationship is assuming that just sending your girl or wife an expensive bouquet of flowers will melt her heart and atone for any past sins.

Today's women see past such gestures and often those flowers will wind up in the trash bin, having angered your sweetie even more. Flowers are great presents for Valentine's Day, Anniversaries, or Birthdays. BUT using flowers as a way of saying "I'm sorry" for some stupid or ignorant blunder is very passe.

In fact a simple note saying that you are sorry and admitting you were wrong for whatever transgression angered her in the first place will go much farther than the most expensive bouquet of roses!

The Loyalist Relationship

Sorry I haven't posted a new blog in over a week. That's probably because on January 2 I had to to put my 13 year old cocker spaniel, Abby, to sleep.

I haven't felt like writing much in the past week. And I don't want to try and rewrite "Marley and Me." Suffice to say those of you who have owned dogs probably know how I feel. Empty and sad.

A friend of a friend of mine has coined the term "dog hole," and it is the feeling that one has in the days, weeks, and months after you lose a dog.

Abby was a wonderfully sweet dog, and a vital member of our family. If you live on the Seacoast of NH, you may have seen Abby and I (along with my wife and daughter) at the Portsmouth Dog Park or on various beaches in the area (always during times that dogs were allowed of course).

She loved people, even more than other dogs. Children would always come up to her and their parents would say "Is it okay?" and my wife or I would nod and say "she loves kids."

And Abby would sit, tail wagging, while children would pet, poke, or prod her.

She will be missed.