It has been a long time since I have had appointments beyond those with the doctor, the notary, the hairdresser or the ITV, all related to the inevitable passage of time. Of the others, the truth is, I am scarce and, furthermore, in the best of cases they are rerun dates. I’m starting to look like those old glories who are invited to act as grandmothers in the new version of a movie in which, one day, they played the protagonist.

A few days ago I was reading a column in our newspaper by my colleague, and yet friend, Joaquín Luna, who calls himself the dean of divorced journalists and, on occasions, delights us with the details of his quotes, which, like almost everything in life, do not always meet expectations. I cannot define myself as the dean of single journalists, because no matter how much times advance, there is still the belief that singleness is a transitory state that has no other purpose than to end it. Being divorced is having status, being single is, even today, a stigma. Yes, yes, don’t contradict me. Nobody thinks that it is by choice, but, in the best of cases, by acceptance of a reality that depends on the decisions of others.

But let’s go back to dates, like my friend Luna, I consider them to be good occasions to analyze human behavior. In my case, and in that of many women of my age and condition, it is to see, for the umpteenth time, how unacceptable it is for some men that you either have more knowledge than them about what their specialty is supposed to be or not. share their verbose argumentation on any topic. Recently, in a chance encounter, it occurred to me to ask a man, whose opinions and analysis had always interested me, what he thought of the Kate Middleton affair, more than anything to start a conversation.

He answered me with a disdain typical of greater causes, arguing that everyone was asking him about that and he was already fed up. I couldn’t help but answer that the question was mere courtesy, pure rhetoric, because on that subject, wrongly (or rightly) I say it, I know much more than him. We continue, then, with the old saying that you are prettier when you are quiet.