White women talk about Nicholas Sparks, Eat Pray Love, Carrie Underwood and mascara. Black women love lip gloss, self-help and “Pretty Woman.” Latinas are gung-ho for the “Twilight” saga and “Sixteen Candles.” For Asian women, it’s “A Walk To Remember,” lip balm, and Tuesdays With Morrie that make the cut. Middle Easterners get excited by Vogue and Elizabeth Gilbert, while for Indians it’s “When Harry Met Sally” and Jane Austen. Pacific Islanders just love Mitch Albom, chivalry, and a bargain.

You might be wondering what I am talking about.

I am somewhat of a loner, so I really value the few friendships that I do have. A year ago at this time, I had three good girlfriends: Kay, Sid and Jan. Kay and I are both single, Sid and Jan are both married. I have always known that Sid is a somewhat unstable person, but last winter she did something inexcusable. She took our friend Jan out for a night on the town, they both got drunk, and Sid offered her up to some military men on leave, telling them “her husband cheated on her, she needs to get laid” (not true, her husband was on a business trip). She willingly let a group of unknown, potentially violent men abduct Jan into their vehicle. Jan was seriously disoriented, frightened, and only got away by faking that she had to pee and running for it out the side their car. She got in touch with me the next day, telling me not to go out with Sid on my own ever. I completely sided with Jan, was disgusted by the danger that Sid put her in, and cut off contact her.

Hey, are you someone I’ve given advice to in the past? Do you have an update on your situation you’re willing to share? Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with a link to the original post, and let me know whether you followed the advice and how you’re doing now. Sometimes people write to me with an idea of what they want to hear and when they don’t hear just that, well, they aren’t very happy ... and sometimes they let me know it. Today we hear from Craigslist Caution, the woman who occasionally catches her husband perusing the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist when he’s feeling sexually rejected and is looking for new friends. Despite even catching him emailing someone from the site, she still wasn’t sure whether she should be worried or just chalk this up to “curiosity.” I told her there was definitely something to be worried about, but that was not the answer she wanted to hear and she had some choice words for me. Read ‘em and weep, after the jump.

Something weird is in the air. Have you noticed it? Nothing seems to be going right. Important e-mails have been bounced. Your laptop or cell phone has gone kaput. Your love life seems to have taken a turn for the worst. You may have even been dumped. That thing you’ve been avoiding? Well, it’s come back to haunt you, hasn’t it?

Blame it on Mercury in retrograde. It began August 20 and will continue its terrible reign until September 12th.

Ladies, look, we think it’s high time we stop snarking on each other and start supporting one another. To that end, we’ve developed an official Frisky Girl Code of Conduct, based on what we wish our friends—and female strangers—might do to help us out. We’ve already compiled a list of “wardrobe malfunction” moments that might require a little extra help, and now we’ve broadened that initial list to include some other must-help moments.

After the jump, we give you a list of things we pledge to do to make life better for all womankind.

I’ve been dating this guy for the past six months and he’s been experiencing some problems with erectile dysfunction ever since we started having sex, about two months ago. He’s in his mid-20s and obviously not the target demographic, so it’s hit him very hard and really damaged his self-confidence. He’s been to the doctor and has an appointment with a specialist in a couple of weeks. I’ve really tried to be supportive and understanding about the whole thing, but the nature of our relationship has changed. We still have sexual contact, even if he doesn’t necessarily get off or get hard. We work part-time together and when I see him at work, he’s very attentive, but the problem is he rarely contacts me anymore outside of work and when he does he says strange things like “I don’t deserve you,” or “I miss you,” but doesn’t ask to see me until I bring it up. We see each other once a week at most at the moment, but he used to want to see me all the time. I’m bloody confused about what to do. I’ve backed off quite a bit to give him some space but I don’t want to get hurt over this. — ED Doesn’t Spell END

Earlier today, an email appeared in my inbox from OKCupid, my online dating site of choice. “New message from BananaMan5,” it read. The name was highly suspect, but I decided to check out the email anyway, just in case Mr. Banana turned out to be the hilarious, dashing, uber-creative man of my dreams. The email was short, just one line with a whole lot of exclamation points:

“I love poom poom!!!!!!!”

This month marks not only my 34th birthday (tomorrow!), but also the third anniversary of my move from Chicago to New York to move in with my now husband. I wasn’t sure at the time if I’d be getting my own place and just staying with him temporarily, or even if the relationship would work out. We’d been long distance up to that point and we were simply taking things to the “next level,” as they say and hoping for the best. Now that we’ve been married over a year, I guess it’s safe to say things have worked out. But being in a couple isn’t without some disadvantages and sacrifices, of course, and looking back on my single years, it’s apparent there were a few things I took for granted. I wouldn’t trade my present for my past (well, I’d take my 22-year-old ass back, please), but after the jump are 12 advantages of being single.

College is a time when women discover their strengths, form lifelong bonds and explore the world around them. For some women the exploration involves local or more exotic travel. For others the exploration is more internal and emotional, while other women remember hilarious moments.  After the jump, some women share their favorite college memories.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Hold onto your horses! Life is about to speed up and throw you into a new stratosphere of decision-making and reevaluating. Not to worry, though, as this will be music to your ears. You have had all the pieces that you need to form a beautiful picture for a while, but now you can start putting them together to see it’s happening for real. CONTINUE READING…

If you’re single and looking to commiserate about your fate, do we have a book for you. Author Kristen McGuiness was on “The Today Show yesterday talking about 51 Dates / 50 Weeks: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life.

Then Chelsea Handler tweeted about how much she loved it, but that’s not what hooked us. Read more ...

Maybe you were an honors nerd in high school, or the trampy cheerleader, or that strange girl who always sat alone at lunch. Whatever your rep, starting college in the fall is your chance to reinvent yourself. (Heck, if you had a bad freshman year, you can start fresh this semester, too.) After the jump, ten tips for creating a new and improved you when you head back to school.

My last relationship ended badly and I’m looking for some clarity. All throughout our time together (on again, off again over a period of several years), she seemed impossible to get close to. Whenever we hung out at her place, she always kept her overprotective dog (who would growl whenever I got near her) close at hand and, when we’d go to my place ... well, one night we’d be cuddling on the couch watching television just fine and the next I couldn’t get within three feet of her without her hopping up for a drink and settling back down across the room. It took quite a while for us to get physical and, once we did, she started making excuses and becoming distant. Finally, after confronting her about it, she threw it on me for being “too clingy” among other things that I just didn’t get, and we proceeded to never speak to each other again. Even after several months I’ve still got this nagging itch of confusion that just won’t let me go. I mean, was she just not ready for a relationship? Was I a rather lengthy trial run or safety boyfriend? Any thoughts? — Untouchable?

Paul Carrick Brunson, known as the Modern Day Matchmaker, is going against conventional thought and finding love for his clients using social media. Each “Modern Day Matchmaker Wednesday,” Brunson takes to Twitter to find a match for one of his clients, usually a man, amongst his 5,000 followers. The followers ask questions about the client, and Brunson picks out the best questions to answer. After the 45-minute-long Q&A, Brunson tweets a photo of the client. He then searches his timeline for match requests, but only a few special followers are selected to meet with the client. Brunson turned an effort to get his brother more followers into a matchmaking career, but is Twitter the way to find love? Well, the more important question to me is whether Brunson is available. [The Black Snob via The Root]