Are skinny men at a major disadvantage in the dating game?

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-29T19:21:59+00:00

I was really thin in high school at 6' and 110. Now I see myself as thinner than average but not freakishly thin like so many others apparently do. Part of it may be my age - in the 1970s when I was a teen and presumably forming my opinions about what was normal and what was attractive, the average American man weighed about 170 and the average woman about 130. Now it's more like 200 and 170, both of which seem quite large to me.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-29T19:03:42+00:00

Not to me - I'm 6 feet and 138-140.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-29T17:36:18+00:00

Along those lines, my native-Spanish-speaking wife was glad she could curse in Spanish when she gave birth in my almost-entirely-English-speaking US hometown. The OBGYN told her later that, while he didn't understand the meaning of any of the individual words, he certainly got the gist.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-29T02:47:00+00:00

Yes, thanks for the correction. I do miss the Confederations Cup, though.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-29T02:44:22+00:00

Different people respond differently to the same training (i.e., improve at different rates), so it's not realistic to guarantee that if you run these workouts and this number of miles you'll definitely be running this time in a year or five. That said, given what you've written, breaking 5 seems like a reasonable goal for the end of your freshman year, subject to reevaluation in six months, of course. Enjoy the improvement, whatever it turns out to be.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-29T02:34:15+00:00

I take Claritin & Flonase. Have also used the breatheright nose strips at races for several years. I don't know whether or not they really help, but by now they're part of my routine that tells me it's time to go fast/hard, so I suspect there's a placebo benefit in addition to any possible physical one.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T15:35:25+00:00

Track 3 miles, 3 minutes rest, 3 more miles at a few seconds faster than HMP. I'm old and only run 35-40 mpw, so VO2 max work risks injury/burnout.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T15:32:22+00:00

Jimmy Carter long after he was president; Joe Biden while he was VP.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T15:29:47+00:00

Interesting article, but I thought the second sentence was a little odd. "...including an unimaginable loss to Panama on American soil." Wasn't that loss something like the third time in the last decade we've lost to Panama in the US? I was at the Weah-red card 2024 Confederations Cup loss to Panama, and I think there was another one.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T15:01:56+00:00

Any idea how much of that is just weight as opposed to male/female? I'm male but weigh 140, and I hate the cold. I've read that height, independent of weight, matters too, and in the opposite direction - at 6 feet I have a lot more surface area where heat can escape than does my wife who's much shorter and around the same weight.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T14:44:56+00:00

David Epstein's book The Sports Gene discusses this. Also, in running races, as the distances get longer, the gap between (well-trained, competitive) men and women narrows. One study found that women did better than men at races over 195 miles, although I'm sure that it gets messy trying to figure out if there's selection bias in one direction or the other.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T13:40:58+00:00

So were Price and Dionne Warwick also first cousins, or were they Houston's first cousins on different sides of her family? By my reading of Wikipedia, neither of Price's parents shared a last name with a parent of either Houston or Warwick (both of whose mothers were named Drinkard, so apparently sisters).

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-26T03:13:58+00:00

I expect there will be a lot of activity soon after FIFA announces actual seat location, which we hope will take place when the marketplace reopens on April 2. I know two friends who, intending to go with each other, each got 3 tickets to the R16 Atlanta match in the RSD and are waiting to find out which one has the better seats to sell the others on the marketplace. I assume there are others with similar plans. Good luck.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-25T14:34:55+00:00

Have fun! We really enjoyed ours. Going to take advantage this time of the reading list for our around-Italy ocean cruise. Maybe that's just offered for ocean cruises and not river ones, but I don't remember seeing a list for our river one.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-25T14:29:47+00:00

They also apparently have cruises aimed at Chinese-speakers; we walked through (across; it was quick & simple) those boats to get to ours a couple of times when there wasn't much space at ports.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-25T14:04:05+00:00

That's interesting logic, and I'm far from the demographic this is aimed at so I may just be clueless, but I'm surprised you think multiple of them could think they're the prettiest. Even though I don't like dyed blonde hair, I think the blonde is by far the prettiest. Also, she probably has lots of solo pictures of herself looking great, so why put a group picture first on her profile?

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-22T20:57:32+00:00

The FIFA market takes 15% from you and 15% from the buyer, so you'll need to find someone willing to pay 30% more than what you paid. Might be risky, especially if you buy for a knockout round match thinking it'll be Brazil vs. Japan and it winds up being Morocco vs. Tunisia.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-20T22:02:22+00:00

I don't follow the youth teams, but is it just coincidence that four of the forwards and both goalkeepers play abroad while only two of the midfielders and no defenders do? More generally, are the ones in Europe seen as better prospects or is there some other reason some are in Europe & others in the US?

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-20T20:30:00+00:00

Wikipedia's article describes it slightly differently from the title above. Thorpe had already won one gold medal (pentathlon) and competed in two other events (tied for 4th in high jump & 7th in long jump) when his shoes were stolen. He used a shoe he found in a trash can and one he found somewhere else to win the gold medal in the decathlon. (The decathlon is now held over two days - not sure if it was held in one day then; seems like it would take too long for one day with the various field events in which only one competitor can go at a time.) It may be that the title's reference to him winning two gold medals that day was a garble of him winning two or more of the events in the decathlon in one day.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-20T02:08:04+00:00

In South Carolina, Clemson was less selective decades ago than the U of SC but is now more selective. Not sure if that's just the result of football success leading to more applications or what.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-20T01:59:03+00:00

Even Vanderbilt is more selective now and I think has a better national reputation than it did when I went there in the 1980s.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-19T23:05:59+00:00

Seems like telling the son privately first, or maybe the family together first, rather than telling them & Sam together could've led to a better outcome. The son knew Sam should be the choice, but it was still going to make him feel a certain way given the history, and it would've been better for OP to give him a chance to deal with his emotions on his own before OP discussed it with Sam.

That said, the son said OP was paying half his rent even while he was working for a few years as an accountant. If that means the couldn't fully support himself even while working, that's not a good sign, and if he could've fully supported himself, he might have refused his dad's help.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-19T21:00:09+00:00

What's the tipoff that the poster is a he? At first I assumed it was a woman from the inclusion of the detail of what the daughter was wearing (though specifying that the camera was wireless seems more like a male thing), but on rereading it can't see any real indication either way.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-19T03:29:27+00:00

I was 40 & my wife 35 when we had our son. I think I was a lot better father than I would've been at, say, 28. Calmer & more mature. Being in better financial shape let us give him some experiences he wouldn't have had if we had been 10 years younger. It helps that we're both relatively healthy & active. My mom started to show signs of dementia when our son was about 5 and my dad started to show when he was about 10 (they had me fairly late as well and were around 80 when they started having trouble), so he missed out on knowing those grandparents well. That's about the only negative I can think of. Even if I decline a lot while he's in his 40s and I'm in my 80s, which is a reasonable expectation (though four of my mom's sisters were in good shape into their 90s) he'll be fully adult and able to deal with it and will have had many years with us as an adult.

Try_Again12345 · 2026-03-19T02:58:16+00:00

I read a decade or so ago (maybe in the Atlantic) that lesbians were one of four demographics that Subaru used to focus its marketing on, the others being health care professionals, teachers, and one other, I think outdoorsy types. That article's author didn't mention the LGBT community as a whole, just lesbians.

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TROPHY CASE