Recently, I was talking to a friend who had just been to an event at a spa specializing in non-surgical facelifts. She said she was amazed by the conversations among the women and the constant negative comments about men. One woman in particular was so pessimistic about her ex and men in general that my friend said “forget about a facelift, she needs a mindlift!” As the owner of a dating service, I’ve interviewed hundreds and hundreds of single men and women, and have heard all kinds ...

If money can’t buy you love, why was Valentine’s Day invented? A pal of mine who owns a flower shop once quipped that men are so desperate to find something for their partners at 5 pm on Valentine’s Day that if he painted a piece of poop red, he could sell it. Which might explain the questionable quality of some of the last-minute, panic-attack gifts I’ve gotten over the years – and definitely turns me off of any chocolate that is not shrink wrapped. In fact, like boycotting N...

Passion has many meanings. If we interpret it as romantic love, the love between a man and a woman, then it must be put right because too many people have been trying to put it wrong. Here are a few basics. No sex before marriage, fidelity to your partner after marriage, no divorce, and a commitment to raising a family. What is extraordinary is the reception that last sentence will most likely have. Many people will exclaim incredulously, even angrily: “I don’t believe he could have writt...

Knocked up Directed by Judd Apatow ** 1/2 It's summer and those not into comic book heroes or lame teen comedies can find the movie pickings slim. There are, however, a few offerings out there which are purportedly for older and possibly wiser folk. One of these, Knocked Up, was written and directed by the fellow who brought the world The 40 Year Old Virgin. In this movie, Alison, a beautiful blonde 20-something who has just received a grand promotion, ha...

The White Masai Directed by Hermine Huntgeburth **1/2 On a boat in Kenya a Swiss German couple, Stefan and Carola, are enjoying the last day of their African holiday. Across a crowded deck blond, beautiful Carola locks eyes with a strikingly handsome young Masai (actually he's a Samburu, a closely related people) warrior in his regal garb. Is this love or merely lust at first sight? Impulsively, Carola stays on in Kenya after Stefan returns home. Soon after, she manages ...

I've been thinking about infidelity since a gorgeous rogue re-appeared in my life. I've been viewing him with as much caution as I would a grizzly who has just appeared downstream, which is to say a lot of caution. I am in a relationship that nurtures me. And it is a happy state, one that I would not abandon willingly, not even for someone that looks and behaves as if he walked out of a Geor-gette Heyer novel, all mystery and sex and fizzy fun. Fifty percent of households are headed up by ...

My ambivalence about Valentine's Day arose in Mrs. Duff's first grade class. There I was, a profoundly shy six-year-old participating for the first time in an exercise in which I would be graded by my peers, by the tally of the cutout cartoon hearts I would receive from the "Valentine Mailbox" that was set up in the corner of the classroom. The mailbox, which had started life as a brown corrugated grocery box from our local IGA, had been the focal point of an entire art period, and blazed with ...

There's a new vaccine in town and it's just for women. Actually, the vaccine is most effective when administered to younger women. In fact, girls as young as nine — the younger you are, the better. Gardasil, developed by Merck Frosst, the Canadian subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., is a positive step towards the prevention of cervical cancer, but because the vaccine is recommended before the onset of sexual relations, it has posed the question, at least in the United States, of...

Cease to Blush By Billie Livingston Random House Canada 480 pages $34.95 Cease to Blush begins with fantastic irreverence: the protagonist, Vivian, arrives late at her mother's funeral in Vancouver. Wearing a skintight red suit, Vivian lingers in the car to sip vodka and tonic. Vivian's mother was Josie Callwood, a famous feminist scholar and lesbian whose partner, Sally, is an artist. This West Coast intellectual existence contrasts sharply to Vivian's own: she's a 34-ye...

We all lounged, languorous, by the end of the book club. This had been the first hot night of summer; we were sweating, despite our slight tank-tops and tube dresses. One woman pulled a cherry off its stem, holding the fruit between her teeth. "What should we read next month?" the host asked. All of us offered suggestions. None seemed to excite us. "How about something sexy" I said. "You mean… like… erotica?" the cherry woman asked. She spit the pit into her palm. "Erotica is so ...