I Need a Man's Pants to Wash

I Need a Man's Pants to Wash, Lorie Kleiner Eckert, Pelican Publishing Co, 2002

This book consists of a group of essays on life and the singles scene written by an over-40 Jewish divorcee from Ohio. They were first published in a number of Jewish newspapers from coast to coast.

A woman can be a superwoman in most areas, able to juggle kids, parents and/or a career without even breaking a sweat, but still be a complete klutz when it comes to even simple home improvement jobs. The book's title comes from a Jewish way of asking why a woman needs a man to feel complete and fulfilled. You can tell a lot about a man by his cappuccino habit. If he goes to the local gas station, instead of the local coffee bar, he likes sweets, he's frugal and he probably lives nearby.

There is much talk about men; how to get them, how to keep them and what makes them tick. The author talks about some of the men she has dated since her divorce. In most cases, they look like they escaped from the local insane asylum, or there is a big difference between what they say they look like and what they really look like. If there is nothing but sex in a relationship, things will be wonderful for a while. But when the sex fizzles, the relationship will, too.

The author's plan for running a personal ad in a local monthly magazine is to run it for three consecutive months, but slightly alter the ad each month. That will hep remove the perception of desperation. Of course, there are safety rules for dating, like arranging to meet him somewhere public, and letting friends know where you're going.

The author also looks at mail-order catalogs, spending a day volunteering at an organic farm run by a group of nuns, the fact that women can learn home repair if they are so inclined, a trip with her youngest daughter, now a teenager, to the local Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor, the TV show "Sex and the City" and why not start your own holiday traditions? The book also includes an introduction to the Yiddish language, with more than 100 words used throughout the book defined in the back of the book.

This one is quite good. It concerns subjects near and dear to everyone (life in general, and relationships in particular) and it's written in a very easy-to-read style, as if the reader is sitting across a kitchen table from Eckert. You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate it. It's very much worth reading.