The Loved One - little free library, Boston, MA

Last week I picked up an erratically highlighted version of The Loved Ones by Evelyn Waugh. Touted as "a dark and savage satire on the Anglo-American cultural divide" I read it more as a misguided love story surrounded by death. Funny but somewhat surreal, the book was lent an additional layer by the fluorescent streaks the anonymous previous reader provided.

"I always think how much better not to have anything to atone for, eh?"

So let me know your highlighter color and let's discuss some of the bigger, badder, vocab words of your choice.

"The best will be good enough." but I know that "Even among the best you find a few rotters."

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/mis/6311638102.html

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This post was at the suggestion of T. He saw my book and thought it might be fun to write up the highlighted words to see if there was any secret meaning. I found the exercise somewhat soothing actually: http://lennisblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-loved-ones-ode-tofrom-evelyn-waugh.html

After reading it and not divining any underlying message, T thought it might be a good Missed Connections so I ran with that idea as well.

The responses were varied but may lead to our next adventure:

Craigslist Reply 1633 wrote: "I have limited vocabulary...but come up with some killer one liners." He also attached six pictures. I'm not in the public shaming game  -- and I don't have time for a 6,000 word tome -- so you'll have to do with a bulleted list.
1. a car selfie in which he is wearing a tank top, a cowboy hat and sunglasses.
2. standing atop a tree. (The arborist in me is worried about how he's tied in.)
3. wearing a missing persons milk carton on his head.
4. feeding a white horse a carrot
5. an unsolicited dick pick...of Richard Nixon
6. him flexing with a spinach can a la Popeye

Jess F wrote: "check out the indivisibility exhibit at the Addison Art Gallery at PA in Andover." A quick google search reveals that he was referring to Invisible Citings: Elaine Reichek and Jeanne Silverthorne a collaborative project at the Addison Gallery at Phillips Academy that "celebrates writing as material and medium and looks to the printed page to consider invisibility. Compiling and reading diverse texts and then painstakingly translating them into compelling works of art, the artists address themes such as the legible and obscured, word and image, illumination and luminescence, archiving and discarding." Sounds good!

XKCD. I heart you.

I thought this particularly relevant to this blog. Although, I 'm sure XKCD had higher-minded ideals like privacy rights, net neutrality, transparency and choice. Ah well.

Lifted (with permission I assume) from xkcd.com

Morus Alba: A Tragic Love Story

This week we've decided to take a direct approach for finding love and post directly to OKCupid. My dear friend Tuti has decided to share her experiences (and her profile) on my illustrious blog.

Doesn't she look super cute?


No wonder she found a nice young mulberry right away. Tuti recounted that her date went well, "We chatted about homeopathic remedies for grey hair and snake bites and the latest pharmaceutical studies on diabetes. He's even  read my two favorite stories O Pioneer and Pyramus and Thisbe! (Now those were tragic love stories!)"

However there were some definite issues. "The moment we became....ahem...intimate. Well, a polite tree doesn't kiss and tell but....it was over at light speed! And then he got a call from some brazen red mulberry! I'll never online date again. Maybe I'll ask out that fine specimen at 888 Winchester Ave."

you waved and said hi... - w4m - 29 (near Key Food, Astoria)

...and I spent the next twenty minutes trying to figure out how I knew you. High school? summer camp? some random networking event? Thanks for keeping my brain occupied during an otherwise boring grocery shopping experience but we are complete strangers. Want to change that?

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It seems that this posting was sufficiently vague to garner a variety of responses. Assuming the responders are men:

Man 1: "Which key food in Astoria? 30th Ave and 43rd St??"
Man 2: "yes I would...."
Man 3: "Very interesting......can you describe what I looked like or what I was wearing......? "

This makes me wonder how many men are out there waving to complete strangers? Why would they need more guidance? Did they wave at someone or didn't they? Unfortunately my missed connection was surprisingly nondescript. My only thought was "Oh he seems friendly" but that may be more due to the fact that he was waving. Also, I didn't know there was a Key Food on 43rd. Also, also I responded with that basic idea to each guy.

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Man 2: sent me a nude photo.

N train - striped shirt and snapple

Here goes...the first new Missed Connection of the new and improved bloggety blog....

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It seems that sleepy and relatively tipsy me was planning to post a missed connection. Written on a receipt in my wallet I found the following words: "12:45 waiiiiiiting ripped jeans, striped shirt adidas N to Astoria talked to guitar guy Snapple."

I can only hypothesize that while waiting over-long for the N train to Astoria I saw an attractive man (I hope) wearing ripped jeans, striped shirt and Adidas. I do recall the guitar guy. Although he was also riding the train he didn't match the description. So I assume, that you (hypothetical man described on Walgreens receipt) exchanged words with him. As for the Snapple, perhaps I'm proposing that we meet for sugary fruit drinks? Interested?

Oh wait, I was the short-haired short-statured girl wearing brown shirt and jeans trying not to dance to the music on my iPod.

Hmm, how shall you prove to me that it's you?

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Ed Note- I accidently posted that I am 28 when in fact I am older.

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Statues: No response. Too specific of a missed connection.

Ms. Connection moves to NYC

Dear loyal reader (Ha!),

Please forgive me for not missing any connections since 2005. I was inconvenienced by the fact that Craigslist hasn't quite made it to Bolivia...which is where I was. But now I'm back to the land of the free (and the Big Mac) and ready to accept the challenge that New York City presents...sort of. I will admit, I am intimidated by the volume of Craigslist postings, the size of the city and the scope of the crazy I could run into.

To complicate things further, I don't live along the L line, which would make my misconnected life much easier as evidenced in this Gawker article.


To close I would like to share a finding from my exhaustive research preparing for this new phase of the Ms. Connection blog: Sophie Blackall's by-oo-ti-ful illustrated missed connections.

Thor from Minnesnowta - w4m

Hey! In a very watered down version of Minnesnowta nice I just wanted to make sure that you're not living on the street. Sorry again that you couldn't live with us. How's the new job/city going?

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I have been delinquent in my duties as Ms. Connection. I will give another try before handing in my resignation.

The above post was a real MC. The Thor in question was supposed to move into my house but the housemates decided against it as we had never met him. Although I didn't have the unlucky duty of telling him this I still felt guilty....especially when I found out he was moving from MN. After posting this, I checked my phone bill and saw that the god of thunder was actually from Missouri, which may explain the lack of response. It doesn't explain why I didn't just call him rather than posting though.