Blogless and Desperate! - What

Blogless and Desperate! - What do you get when you combine two hot trends?

In the case of blogs (hot trend!) and urban singles (hot trend!), you get dateblogs (Not a trend).

Both of the Twin Cities' major dailies are running dateblogs - blogs hosted by people who are dating. And, might I add, dating, dating and dating.

The Pioneer Press' "Ruby" was in the business first - her "Single In The City" "dating weblog", which reads more like an advice column, has been around about nine months - and since she's a PiPress staffer, she's the better writer of the two. She actually offers the occasional insight, to the extent that any twentysomething has anything useful to say about dating.

She is also waaay too obsessed with clothes; you could make a fun drinking game called "Ruby's Clothing References" ("Every hip clothing reference, take a hit and pass the tall slammer around. If she refers to turtlenecks, whoever holding the slammer has to chug it!"). She is also, unfortunately, a bit of a bigot - as seen in this coment about a fling with a coast guardsman:

Unfortunately, it was doomed from the start – he doesn’t live in the Twin Cities and had no plans to move. The radical Republican slant made me kinda seasick, too.

...or in this response to reader email:

Relationships aren’t for everyone, and that’s OK, but if I wanted to live with that much unfounded fear, I’d vote for Bush .

And if your potential date wanted to be around someone who brings so much bitterness and political anger to the table, Ruby, he'd get jiggy with Rachel Corrie. Except she's dead. But I digress.

The Strib, on the other hand, was good enough to hire a regular guy - or so he seems, from his writing style.

But the anonymous blogger from "Wrecked in the Cities" (I'll kiss the editor of the first newspaper dateblog that doesn't use a play on "Sex in the City" for its title. Figuratively, i mean) could stand to relax a bit:

My date blog is starting to feel like a political campaign. While I am waiting for the results to come in from one speed-dating event, I am off meeting people at another.

Speed-dating is creeping into my dreams. Last night, I dreamt that I met enough people to place third in the Minnesota Caucus. According to the Zogby results, I would have placed second if I had done better among the NASCAR demographic.

That'll teach me to doze off to CNN. Still, it's becoming apparent to me that I need a break from speed dating. And fast. Before this blog gets weirder

Don't worry, buddy - your blog's not wierd. It reads like the diary of every guy who goes back into dating after a long time out of the racket; it reeks of desperation at every turn. "Am I ever going to find someone who really loves me, ever again? Or am I just another desperate, dateless, lonely loser?" Then denial ends, and you realize "Yes, I am". Then you relax, start enjoying yourself, and become someone that a woman who's not every bit as much a desperate nutjob as you are (if only temporarily so, for both of you) might like to be around.

I'm still in stage two, myself. Hang in there, buddy. And watch out for that Ruby chick. She's got all sortsa baggage, and oy, does she gossip.

Posted by Mitch at February 17, 2004 05:08 AM