Sunday, December 31, 2006

half plus seven, or ten years?

Walking down the street with my brother Tom and my uncle. My uncle is a retired physics professor who now lives in Shanghai.

Uncle: I told my son that in an ideal marriage, the man should be five to ten years older than the woman.

Tom: Ten years... So I should date someone who is nine years old.

Me: Hee hee!

Uncle: [seriously] That's right. You are too young now, of course. But when you are 29, she will be 19.

...

A few minutes later, a little girl crossed the street in front of us, hand-in-hand with her mommy. She wore a red coat, her hair pulled into two pigtails with pink ribbons.

I patted Tom on the arm. "How about that girl as your girlfriend?" I said.

He leaned over to get a look at her face. "In ten years, she'll still be too ugly."

...

Later that afternoon, in a shopping mall with my family.

Me: Christina's friend from New York saw pictures of you from the Google Holiday Party and said you're cute.

Tom: Oooh! Can I get a picture of Christina's friend?

Me: Tom, she's in her early 30s.

Tom: That's okay.

My mom: [overhearing] What? Early 30s? That's not okay!

Tom: [pulling me a couple paces away from our mother] I'm just curious.

Me: Fine. I think she's a stockbroker, so she can be your sugar mommy.

Tom: Seems like my range is really varied. Nine to thirty years old.

Me: [laughing]

Tom: Can you imagine if I broke up with Christina's friend? I'd say, 'I'm sorry, I can't talk to you any more. I need to go pick up my new girlfriend from elementary school.'"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the age is not very important.as your uncle said.
u need date someone who is thirty-seven years old?

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year, Niniane!!

Rc, The Netherlands

Anonymous said...

Assuming you agree with your uncle...there are many older lurkers of your blog that now have chance to bag the previously unattainable Niniane!

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with half-plus-seven?

Anonymous said...

what your uncle said is actually very ture, especially for Chinese man. I have learned the hard way by marrying someone actually slightly older than me and it takes so much more to make marriage work.

interestingly, your uncle's advise are the same as Tom Leykis gives to young man in America. Just tune into FM106.9 in the afternoon 6:00PM. it makes commute bearable.

Tell your brother Tom that he needs to listen to the radio show.

Unknown said...

I've been reading your blog for a while now, and this post has been one of my favorite. I have a cousin in elementary school. Maybe Tom would be interested? She's damn cute "right now" :)

Roelof van den Berg said...

Here in Delft (Netherlands), we use the following formula:
lower limit: own age / 2 + 5
upper limit: own age - 5 * 2.
Indead, it doesn't work for below 10.

Anonymous said...

My friends and I agree on this range for a man's woman: -7 years to + 3 years. The inverse for a woman's man. Anything outside this range tends to be noticeable. For example, if a guy dates someone 10 years younger, others will point out how young she is. If a man dates a woman 4 years older, someone will point out how much older she is. Sorry, Niniane, undergrads are now off limits to you...