What's It All About, Alfie?

Clark*, JD's 47-year-old friend, has been known to admit to chasing skirts half his age or younger. An attractive 18-year-old has purportedly come on to him. (To which i roll my eyes.) Recently divorced, he has started dating a 23-year-old who used to cut his hair. (Not setting the bar too high, are we, Clark?)

When i learned this piece of information, i became insanely enraged. JD doesn't get it.

"If the guy can get away with it, maybe he deserves it," says JD in Clark's defense. Which just fuels my indignance even more.

Perhaps JD is uncomfortable because he sees himself in Clark, as perhaps most men do. Or perhaps i don't get it because i don't see Clark as a person - just a poster child of men who happen to be sleazebags. Now, i acknowledge that what two consenting adults do in their bedroom (or on the kitchen counter, or the back of a Ford pickup) is their business. But the gal is barely 4 years older than the guy's college-age son! Tell me that's not disgusting!!

The fury took me by storm and startled me. I can psychoanalyze all i want, but the core may just be jealousy, plain and simple. I ain't 23 no more. And not like i have anything going for me at present.

Or maybe it's the knowledge that i ain't ever gonna score a 23-year-old myself.


* Not his real name