The wedding of Pryanka Chopra and Nick Jonas was a two-day affair estimated to cost $584,000. In the 1960s, when Jack and I got married, most brides and grooms were in their 20s. They went directly from their parents' home to the proverbial honeymoon cottage. So, the virginal white gown made sense (at least in theory). Marching down the aisle with a parent "who giveth this bride" seemed symbolically appropriate, if not altogether PC.  And gifting the young couple with household goods was a matter of necessity. Today's bride and groom are at least a decade older, have been living together for a while and already [...]

Photo courtesy "Cosmopolitan" Magazine. Are you tired of Tinder? Maxed out on Match?  Has the search for Mr. Right, turned wrong? Maybe it's time to take a new look at an old-fashioned solution -- the arranged marriage. I follow a number of Instagram accounts on dating.  They have names like datingmrwrong, datingafter50, datingafter40, datingappgargbage,dating_nightmares. Some of them post funny dating observations, like: "Sorry we haven't spoken in a while -- I've not been drunk." "We broke up for religious reasons. He thought he was God. I didn't." Or "My prince isn't coming on a white horse. He's riding a turtle and obviously lost." And some publish head-snapping [...]

Lucy Liu, Ginnifer Goodwin and Kirby Howell Baptiste seek revenge on cheating husbands in new TV series, "Why Women Kill." Cheating steps into the spotlight this August when CBS All Access launches a new series, "Why Women Kill,"starring Lucy Liu, Ginnifer Goodwin and Kirby Howell Baptiste.  It's about three women, in three different decades, who discover their husbands are cheating and how each seeks revenge. The trailer looks like plain, old fashioned fun! Check it out. Revenge is always fun, if you aren't the recipient, of course. There's a perverse pleasure in evening the score. The internet is filled with hilarious examples. I thought I'd share a few. [...]

Elliot Gould, Natalie Wood, Robert Culp and Dyan Cannon in the 1969 movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." Today I'm writing on a topic I know nothing about (as if that ever stopped me): "wife swapping" -- also known as "wife sharing" or the more PC, "swinging." I regularly get emails from a social media site called, "Quora," which posts a question from one of its subscribers and then publishes answers provided by other subscribers.  Many of the questions are relatively bland, i.e. "Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after you were seated by a waiter or waitress?" Yeah, so what? But [...]

Despite 54 years of marriage, Jack Schindler and I do not like the same movies, television programs or books.  We are also incompatible when it comes to shopping. When I want to buy a pair of jeans, I try on several different styles and sizes and check every angle in a three-way mirror. I might pair it with a variety of tops to evaluate the look and consider the type of shoes that are appropriate for the length and cut of the pants. I'll sit and walk in every pair to see if they gap or pull.  I might ask the sales clerk how the fabric launders and [...]

Photo Credit: Alvin Mahmudov on Unsplash As someone who claims expertise on "selecting a husband and maintaining him in good working order," I will have to admit my knowledge of the selection process is a little rusty. Not having personally husband-shopped for more than a half century, I rely on third-party research to keep up with current dating customs and taboos. Over the past couple of years, I've learned that blind dates have given way to dating apps and websites with their "bread-crumbing," "benching" and "ghosting." Break-ups via post-it notes (so old school) have been replaced by break-ups via text, DM or simply changing one's relationship status [...]

Photo Credit: Getty Images In a recent story in the In a "Sunday Styles" section of the New York Times, a young New York man describes spotting a young woman across the room at a business event in Israel, "I . . .  just kind of froze for a moment. . . I immediately told myself if this girl could be the one, then I'm satisfied, I'm set for life." They had one date before he flew home.  Six months later they had a second date in Venice, and less than a year later she emigrated from Israel and moved into his Manhattan apartment. Love at first [...]

I don't know what your mother told you on your wedding night, but mine said, "all men fart in bed." This came from a woman who had two husbands and only one extra-curricular encounter that I know of.  So, her opinion, while informed, was not based on exhaustive research. But science has explored the topic. Studies show that both men and women fart up to 20 times per day (both in and out of bed), but that men are no more gaseous than women.  It's just that men do little to control the noise level, frequency or location of their farting. To the contrary, men seem to be quite fond of [...]

Marianne Murciano and Bob Sirott have been both business and life partners for 20 years. We all know marriage is hard, very hard. For two individuals to forge a life together, they have to compromise, accommodate, forgive and overlook — on a daily basis. That’s a pretty tall order. But what if these individuals also work together?  How much harder is that? To find out, I talked to several such couples. Chicago broadcasters Marianne Murciano and Bob Sirott didn’t know each other when they were paired to co-anchor the morning news on Fox TV in Chicago. The working relationship came first. They went from strangers to friends to lovers over [...]

In an era of match.com, Tinder and dating-by-algorithm, it's nice to know that unexpected, heart-stopping, romance-by-chance is still possible. Even better, it can happen when you're dipping your toe in the dating pool for a second time.  Here're three such stories. A Tale of Three Steves Sharon was 39, newly divorced from Steve #1, and the mother of two small boys when she went to a single's dance on Long Island to meet her date, Steve #2.  She was there only a few minutes, when Steve #3 asked her to dance. While not quite ready to ditch Steve #2, she agreed to dinner the next night. Three days [...]