Recently, my friend R. and I were discussing the people we were dating (in my case, more like the friend I had feelings for which of course weren't revealed to her yet), as well as the relationships of our common friends and acquaintances.

One thing we both marveled at was the wide age gaps between the two parties in a few of the couples. This predictably led to an animated debate as to what is an "acceptable" age difference, if there is such a thing. Some would fall back on the age-old (pun intended) nugget of wisdom, "Age does not matter". But I would wager that most people do have a self-imposed limit as to the ideal age range of a potential mate, with anything beyond that limit considered "ewwww".

Moreover, R. was bemoaning the fact that her current flame J. was 4 years her junior, which in her mind was a significant hurdle to the odds of him being "the one". (Most women think like this, so she said. Or do they??). I, on the other hand, conceded that my prospect N. was a bit on the young side, but that it didn't matter much.

After comparing other couples we knew, she came up with what we called the Cradle Snatcher Index, a proxy for the suitability of a couple based on their ages. The formula is:

CSI = (Age of Older Person - Age of Younger Person)
/Age of Older Person

Using her situation as an example, R. = 29, J. = 25, then

CSI (R&J) = (29 - 25)/29
= 0.14

In my case, E. = 33, N. = 22 then

CSI (E&N) = (33 - 22)/33
= 0.33

Using her friend D. (37) and his inamorata V. (26), we get

CSI (D&V) = (37 - 27)/37
= 0.27

And so on and on. We had a field day applying the CSI to pretty much anyone we knew. Took a lot of ribbing from R. for being the "winner" of the contest - not that I was going to be deterred in my pursuit. So N., watch out!!!