Although one continues to do really stupid things the older one gets, it occurred to me recently (from experience) that one reason older people have tough times on dates is that they can pick up hints that this might be a bad idea much earlier than they used to. You might call this excessive pickiness, but on the other hand, you might say that you are saving the time of two people by recognising that this is not worth investing a chunk of the rest of your diminishing lifetime in. On a first date recently, I was interrogated in detail about the hour and minute of my birth so that it could be determined if we were compatible according to the stars. One of those subtle tipoffs. A year or so ago I went out with a very nice lady who, when the check came, in a very elegant restaurant, whipped out a calculator so as to determine whether the sales taxes had been calculated properly.

Any other subtle tipoffs Catters might wish to share from their experiences on the front lines?

yours, Peter T.