Best and Worst Mates

Who makes the best husband – a French man, a Jewish Man, a Geek? It’s clearly each to her own.

From an American woman married to a French man: “I am told the kinds of things every woman loves to hear, I am beautiful, I am an angel and this makes me feel very loved. My husband is missing many of the American things I don't like. He doesn't drink beer, watch football or fart repulsively in front of me. Instead he helps around the house. He is more thoughtful and giving. He dresses impeccably and even takes care of his skin without me having to gripe at him. And I can't even begin to tell you what a French man is like in bed. Ooh la la…”


And in the words of Marianne Jennings, the NPR commentator: “Show me a man who wears his wrinkles proudly and I’ll show you a good husband. Show me a man with an ab machine and I’ll show you trouble... I’ll take a geek, for better or for worse, just the way he is.”

I’ve always heard that Italian men make the best lovers and that Jewish men make the best husbands. I happily buy the wisdom on Italian men. On the other hand, I can’t generalize about who makes a good husband, but if you gauge by the anecdotes on cheating husbands in our book, Jewish men don’t look so promising. I suppose if we’d interviewed a bunch of women from Beijing, we’d have found that Chinese men make lousy husbands too!