• by whitley , November 30, 2005

I reviewed the premiere issue of Tango a few weeks ago only to discover that it had been on the newsstands for eight months (my bad). In fairness to the editors, I just finished reading the latest issue--Fall 2005. Tango has lofty goals: its tagline is "Love, Life and the Pursuit of Happiness," which is clearly what most couples (and single people) are striving for in a relationship. Rather than focusing on the relationship from the point of view of one gender, Tango tries to look at both sides, and this point of view extends into product reviews as well as stories and advice columns. In the front of the book, a couple test-drives Franklin Electronic's Ultimate Portable Reference Suite, which is an electronic dictionary and thesaurus, and another story focuses on how video games can improve your relationship.

In general, I still find the stories clichéd, but the magazine has improved a lot since I read the first issue. The point of view is stronger and the stories approach ideas around relationship on many levels, from the practical (advice for first dates, first-date outfits, and diets that boost your sex drive) to the spiritual. In fact, this particular issue focuses a lot on the spiritual. Author Thomas Moore has a piece about the connection between sex and spirituality in which he offer his ten erotic commandments, and a newly dating single mom goes to a feng shui master in order to make her apartment more focused on having a relationship. There also is a funny feature on what every couple knows could destroy their relationship: house renovation.

"West Wing" star Kristin Chenoweth is on the cover in a story called "The Single Life," in which she completes the Tango relationship questionnaire and says, "My mother always told me never to rely on a man... I don't know if that's good advice or bad advice." My favorite relationship story is an excerpt from the book Advice to a Young Wife from an Old Mistress, in which we learn the two are not as different you might think. "Being in love does not require mental censorship, but it does require pruning of one's thoughts." Now that's good advice to live by.