| My best friends Kim and Helen joined me for lunch on | | | | bulb, but still pretty remarkable based on my personal |
| a rare sunny day at one of the trendiest restaurants | | | | history of "bright" ideas. Could it be that her |
| in Seattle. Kim, Helen, and I were classmates in | | | | neighborhood has an imbalanced male-to-female ratio? |
| college but went our separate ways after graduation | | | | Once I got home, I Googled for ZIP code |
| due to our careers. We savored this moment we had | | | | demographics Web sites and came across one that |
| together and chatted about subjects ranging from | | | | showed her neighborhood as having one of the |
| work, to family, to clothes. When the topic of | | | | lowest male-to-female ratios in the state. No wonder |
| conversation turned to why Kim is still single, we | | | | she's having trouble finding good men! They're |
| probed into the types of men she's dated and | | | | probably all exploiting the ratio disparity and milking |
| reasons why they aren't still together. Kim's | | | | the situation for all it's worth! |
| responses were laced with emotion, but her favorite | | | | Lucky for Kim, the ZIP code demographics site I was |
| phrase appeared to be, "Where have all the good | | | | using, ZipWho.com, also allows you to search for ZIP |
| men gone?" | | | | codes using demographics as search criteria. So I was |
| Being the loyal and faithful friend that I am, I decided | | | | able to find a bunch of neighborhoods that have a |
| to devote that evening to helping Kim answer her | | | | respectable male-to-female ratio, plus median income |
| most troubling question. Just where have all the good | | | | greater than $75,000, plus median age under 40. |
| men gone? Do good men live in her neighborhood? | | | | Lucky for Kim, indeed! |
| Do men in general live in her neighborhood? After | | | | So the next time you wonder why there aren't any |
| some serious thinking during a trip to the | | | | great guys/gals around, maybe you should examine |
| supermarket, a light bulb moment entered my head. | | | | who is living in your ZIP code. You might find a good |
| Not quite as impressive as the invention of the light | | | | excuse to move. |