(Photograph copyright 2009, all rights reserved)
Oh dear. Late again. Oh well. Nothing new there. Weekends are horrifically busy in the Messy Household, so you'll have to bear with me.
Now on Sundays, The Boy and I have a bit of a tradition. In the afternoons, we head out walking, cameras in hand and time things so that we end up at our local at exactly 3:00 p.m. for a delicious beer before we head home to make dinner. While there, we pick up a Chicago Reader (http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/Home ) . It's very entertaining. Perfect, in fact, for perusing whilst sipping a delightful alcoholic beverage on a chilly afternoon.
It carries Dan Savage's column and something called "News of the Weird" which is a roundup of oddball news stories around the world (go have a look, it's hilarious), but the most entertaining thing is a section of the classified ads called "I Saw You". You can see it here, http://chicagoreader.selectalternatives.com/gyrobase/Personals/ISawYou . Essentially, it's a section of ads that people send in saying things like (NOT A REAL AD I MADE IT UP):
"You were the guy in the kilt vomiting in the gutter outside the L--------- Bar on the 19th. I thought you were revolting, but cute. I was wearing a long black leather coat and nothing else. Please call me, I want to have your babies."
There are usually a dozen or so of these a week, most considerably more benign than my example. People see each other on the El or at a bus stop, grocery store, hair salon - you name it - then post one of these ads hoping to get in contact with the person they're admiring. Ok, I get that. Seeing or having a short conversation with someone and being chicken to ask for a phone number...most of us have been there.
But, but....here's the question.
How many of these ads get answered? How many of you out there would answer them? Have you ever done that? Do you KNOW someone that has?
(Note: I just called The Reader and spoke to someone in their classifieds department. He said that they don't really have a way to keep track of which ads get answered and which don't. He added that he thinks this is one of those questions that you never really want to know the answers to anyway. It's better to keep the magic alive and allow people hope. That said, they have had people call and tell them that they met through ads in the paper and they're getting married. So all of this isn't as silly as I thought it might be.)
If I ever saw an ad that was clearly meant for me, I'm not sure I could resist the temptation of responding just to see what the hey. Like Match.com; kind of drives me a little crazy knowing HE'S OUT THERE, and, seriously, my interest is piqued as to what their version of my Mr. Right would be. I've never responded to an ad, nor do I know anyone who has. Probably because I'm not often caught wearing a kilt and vomiting in a gutter. Not that it hasn't happened, just that I tend not to leave any witnesses.
ReplyDeleteThe opposite could happen, too. Even if you did see an ad meant for you, you could be thinking:
ReplyDelete"Oh yuck and barf! That was the nose miner that followed me through the checkout line last Thursday night that kept offering to cook for me. He had his hand so far up his nose I couldn't see his wrists...and was he scratching his ass when I was leaving?......"