Rescue Me, He's Wearing a Moose Hat: And 40 Other Dates after 50 Book

With some trepidation, author Sherry Halperin reentered the dating scene in 1994 at age 51, several months after her husband of 26 years passed away. At first she thinks the dating game isn't for her, until she gets set up by a friend and begins to feel some long-lost emotions. Halperin goes on 40 dates, which she finds through web sites like match.com, professional services that cost up to $5000, blind dates, singles parties, and more. Each chapter is a short vignette — often funny and poignant, sometimes sad, and always candid — with a humorous caricature of the featured man.
Though most of her dates can be considered calamities, with partners such as Moose Hat, Turkey Neck, and Rich Old Man, she also dates several younger "studmuffins," gets hit on by a woman, and even falls in love again.
Rescue Me hits a nerve by shelling out the real deal on what being single again truly means. As Halperin continually revises her Perfect Man list, she is transformed from idealist to realist, eventually coming to terms with being single. Meanwhile, she's still tackling her inexhaustible dating options with gusto, humor, and an energy that outpaces any 20-year-old dating enthusiast.

Publishers Weekly

Widowed at 51 after 26 happily married years, Halperin, who owns a production company in California, bought a dog and swore to remain true to the memory of her late husband. Her resolve lasted until a friend fixed her up on a blind date less than a year later. It wasn't a whopping success, and neither were most of the next three dozen or so dates she recalls in this memoir-cum-advice book, but they are entertaining and even enlightening. Having decided she wanted to meet another man, Halperin turned to Internet dating services, personal ads and chance meetings at weddings and in chat rooms. On AOL Love Connections, she meets David, a multimillionaire who turns out to be her late husband's cousin, not to mention an overweight cheapskate. She pays a matchmaking service $5,000 and then learns of its practice of giving complimentary membership to "certain very eligible bachelors." Even when the men she meets fail to emerge as keepers, Halperin takes away a lesson about herself or human nature. Her conclusion that the dating world is a jungle isn't breaking news, and she has an occasional tendency to be corny or crude, but fellow daters will appreciate her engaging blend of humor and honesty. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.