Riddle Me This...

Many people in our (my) age demographic list The Daily Show as their major news source--and honestly, I don't blame them--escapism has been far more comforting than reality these past eight years of "Still President Bush." In my world, another major news source is The Oprah Winfrey Show. I suppose it's more accurate to say major information source since Oprah doesn't typically report news these days.

I think it was last season that Oprah featured the author of a book called "The Manual," a confirmed bachelor whose mission was to explain his gender to we "amazing single women over 30" that are baffled by the prospect of getting Mr. He Has Potential to take action. One of his key messages that stirred a good bit of controversy was about how guys are visual creatures--and therefore a woman should never leave the house without looking her best. This idea stuck with me, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it's with a bit of defiance that I step out of my apartment sans makeup en route to Boot Camp or the gym on any given day of the week. And when I leave those workouts, I don't take the time to get gussied up before boarding the Subway home. So, riddle me this, Mr. Manual: why, when I went out yesterday sans makeup but otherwise put together (not sweaty, hair ok, casual outfit), was I so eye-catching to people on the Subway?

Was it the two textbooks I was carrying? Was one of them secretly hoping to offer to carry my books for me?

Was it the two green bags? Do men have an attraction to the color green?

Now, I will grant you, Mr. Manual, that among these looks only one came from someone within my age demo. And he was kind enough to place himself between me and a potentially messy situation involving a cute child in a stroller with melting ice cream.