Results tagged “dating”

Good news for singles looking for singles in Manhattan this weekend: the intrepid reporters from the NY Post have crunched the data from the most recent census of NYC, and found that more than half of Manhattan residents are single. (For some perspective, if you include the other four boroughs, that rate drops down to 33.5%) And they sound really pumped about this "no roommate, no spouse, no family, no kids" utopia they've discovered.

The New York Times posted an article today for anyone who's ever had to endure subway transfers to get to their beloved. They track the story of one couple, Peter Horan and Afton Vermeer, who must trek nearly an hour and a half to see each other in the same city (Horan lives in western Harlem, Vermeer in Sunset Park.) While this is not news to many couples in the city, the Times reports that it seems to be happening more and more, with a variety of repercussions.

Nice going, commenters. We were all having fun with Sean McGinn's $5 million lawsuit against Match.com, but as usual you had to go and push things too far, and now he's dropping the suit. Because of you. You'll recall that in June McGinn had sued Match.com—despite actually finding romance through the dating site—for "creating the appearance that inactive members are active" and causing him "profound personal anguish." But according to a recent court filing, the "sensationalized media coverage subjected [McGinn] to hundreds of reader comments" on the Internets and "caused no end of personal distress for Sean and incited a firestorm of rancorous Web commentary that Sean found literally unbearable." According to his lawyer, some cruel wags even "mocked" the 37-year-old TV producer as "lovelorn." Others, like Gothamist commenter Rocknrope, noted that McGinn "actually does look like a human incarnation of Comic Book Guy with short hair and glasses." It's hurtful words like that that drove McGinn to give up on his $5 million dream. Happy? We all owe Sean an apology in the comments.

A Brooklyn man filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against Match.com yesterday, accusing the dating site of teasing users with profiles of "canceled subscribers or [ones who] never subscribed at all." As a result, Match sparked an inferno of "humiliation and disappointment" for 37-year-old user Sean McGinn, whose lawsuit argues that "Match's policy causes severe emotional distress and anxiety for some [subscribers], including those who keep writing e-mails to one member after another and never hear back because he/she is writing to people who've canceled... Because the writer has no way of knowing this, he or she may experience profound personal anguish, suffering which is easily preventable by Match."

       

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now," the Smiths-themed speed dating event, had its fourth monthly installment at Greenpoint's Black Rabbit bar last night. And with just about every table in the place filled with daters, it's safe to say that the ironic brainchild of comedian Dave Hill may have transcended gimmick status and become something of a minor phenomenon. (When we say ironic, it's not due to involvement of hipsters, but rather the event drawing its inspiration from Morrissey, at one time the most famous self-proclaimed asexual.)

Remember how last month we all had fun hating that "support group" Dating a Banker Anonymous [DABA], created by and for materialistic ladies freaking out about their suddenly penurious boyfriends? And then, after a NY Times article about the women led to an immediate book deal for the DABA co-founders—swiftly followed by talk of a movie and TV deal—we all gagged on our own bile? Well, as previously suspected, the whole thing was just a satirical put-on—there never was any support group, just a blog—and the Paper of Record has just issued a mea culpa, almost four weeks after the article was originally published:

An article on Jan. 28 about women who commiserated over dating Wall Street bankers caught in the financial crisis described a group they had formed, Dating a Banker Anonymous, as a support group. That is the name of their blog. Its creators originally told The Times that about 30 women had participated, but since publication, they have said that all involved were friends. Laney Crowell, one of the women who started the blog, said in the article that it was “very tongue in cheek;” she has since described it as a satire that embellishes true experiences for effect. Had the nature of the blog been made clear at the outset, the article would have described it accordingly, not as a support group.

Maybe you saw the segment about the NJ woman who has launched a website to find a husband on the local news last night, but now Neenah Pickett has taken her search to the national stage, with an appearance on Good Morning America. "Pickett said like many women who work in New York City, she was extremely focused on her career in her 20s and 30s and didn't spend time looking for Mr. Right." The 42-year-old media consultant runs 52 Weeks to Find My Husband, where men can suggest Pickett date them or others can weigh in on her dates. She adds, "I don't think I come across as desperate on the Web site. I think once they get to know me, I'm pretty easygoing, I'm a fun person. But if that's the perception they want to take away, I can't really do anything about that." And if she's out of luck by December 31, 2009, she'll take a sabbatical from dating (and, we guess, write a book).

It's not easy maintaining a healthy relationship when you're fully immersed in the not-so-healthy restaurant and bar industry. So Time Out NY has come to the rescue this week, highlighting personal ads from local chefs, bartenders and club owners who are on the prowl. Anita Lo (pictured), chef and co-owner of Bar Q, is attracted "to pretty girls" and wants "someone who eats everything." Alex Day, a bartender at fussy cocktail lounge Death & Company, gets points for being totally upfront about his twee attire: "I wear a tie and vest or suspenders six nights a week—you can’t work in this part of the industry without being a little bit of a dandy." And Matthew Roff, who co-owns Southpaw and Public Assembly, likes "girls who know how to fucking drive." Go get 'em, fast drivin', big eatin', Wes Anderson fans!

Representative Anthony Weiner explained to the AP why he's spending so much time campaigning for Hillary Clinton, even as the junior Senator from NY trails rival Barack Obama. Weiner said, "I'm doing a lot, but it's largely because I'm dating Huma." Finally--the Post suspected as much last October.

A new website, Subway Crush, could mark the end of romantic quests like the one undertaken by Patrick Moberg last fall, when he created a website to find a cute girl he spotted on the subway. His efforts won him international fame, book and movie offers, and, yes, a date with the young lady. Oh, and plenty of derision.

Dating and eating converge in a new Brooklyn-based program called the Feed Me Show...and it looks like the producers need some Brooklyn singles to heat things up in their kitchen:

We're looking for a few attractive Brooklyn singles who have it where it counts -- in the kitchen. No acting experience necessary, but you must have an exhibitionistic streak, cause we're going to get up close and personal on video, in a series that hits the web this spring. No sex, no nudity. This is not an icky "modeling" call. We're all about food and love.

ART: Art, fashion and blogs meet tonight at the Met. In an exhibition entitled blog.mode: addressing fashion, viewers will be able to comment on what they see. It's "the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present." Visitors are then encouraged to share their reactions online or from a "blogbar" of computer terminals in the exhibition galleries. Pictured is one of the dresses -- you know you have comment about it.

The family and friend of the Minnesota tourist who took a fatal plunge from a Midtown hotel this past weekend are saying her death is not a suicide. Twenty-one-year-old Jennifer Olson fell 60 feet from a fire escape at the Night Hotel and earlier reports suggested she jumped, but her friend, Timothy O'Neill, told the Daily News, "I don't believe it was suicide. I believe it was accidental. After drinking six or seven hours, people aren't thinking clearly."

Retired football great Jim Brown is the president of a new snack food and beverage company and City Councilman Leroy Comrie is not happy about it. Brown's company is called OG Nation, which Comrie says stands for "original gangster." The company currently markets "King Pin" lager and a line of mixed drinks under the brand "Party Dogg." According to Newsday, Arizona-based OG Nation is also developing a line of potato chips, pretzels, pork rinds, and dips that will be marketed as "Thug Chips."

At 6:30AM yesterday morning, federal agents delivered "wake-up" subpoenas to the Reverend Al Shaprton and four of his employees at the National Action Network. The FBI and IRS are looking for financial and corporate records, some dating back to 2001, as part of an investigation into Sharpton's financing of his 2004 presidential campaign as well as allegations of tax fraud. Ten people in total were subpoenaed, including a former chief of staff who left in...

Mayor Bloomberg, our very own billionaire mayor, is asking state lawmakers to keep the sales tax at 8.375%. Apparently the sales tax, per "Rules dating back to the city's fiscal crisis of the 1970s" (thanks for the history lesson, NY Sun!), would have dropped 1 percentage point to 7.375% on July 1, 2008, but Bloomberg wants to keep it at its current level. That extra 1 percent tax means about $1 billion in revenue for...

Tim Russert has invited all the presidential candidates to appear on Meet the Press, and yesterday former Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared. We imagine many New Yorkers watching the program gnashed their teeth and/or swore at the TV (we happened to do both), as Giuliani tried to answer questions ranging from the straightforward (Giuliani's Iowa poll numbers, Russert asked, "Fifth place, is that a problem?") to the interesting (Russert on Giuliani's consulting business: "A Las...

Filmmaker Ethan Coen has left his big brother behind and written three short plays all by himself. Called Almost an Evening, the triptych will be produced by the Atlantic Theater Company with a terrific cast that includes Elizabeth Marvel, who was riveting in Ivo van Hove’s unforgettable revival of Hedda Gabler, and Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham. The plays “unsuccessfully tackle important questions. In Waiting, someone waits somewhere for quite some time. In Four...

Just in time for last night's Republican debate, political website Politico broke a story claiming that former mayor Rudy Giuliani billed "obscured city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses" for extra-marital Hamptons trips with future wife Judith Nathan. When Giuliani would travel outside the city, he would be accompanied by a police detail. And if he stayed overnight, the police would also need lodging and other expenses taken care of. Politico...

Todd P is known around town as one of the hardest working men in D.I.Y. show biz. He created a scene out of avant garde bands, old buildings and some plywood -- and has given plenty of music lovers a place to hear good music for cheap, while sipping on a $2 beers and sweating in barely ventilated (or legal) venues. But what's this...Todd P is going on hiatus? To work on a print 'zine?...

Yesterday morning's hostage standoff in the Bronx turned out to stem from an apparent love-triangle killing. Police had wanted to speak to Marlon Sanders, about a Monday night shooting in Queens. Jamal Leavy was fatally shot in South Jamaica, and police soon discovered that he and Sanders were both dating Shante Dalton, a city corrections officer. When police arrived at Dalton's Bronxdale apartment in their search for Sanders, she refused to let them in, prompting...

A 23-year-old Queens woman was saved from a disease that was destroying her kidneys by a most-willing donor: her fiancé. Jarena Bates and Tye Johnson met when Johnson was delivering a couch in Queens and Bates answered the door. They began dating soon after and have been together for five years, getting engaged in January. Bates, who was diagnosed with a kidney disorder when she was 14 years old was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome shortly after she and Johnson got engaged and was hospitalized in May when she went into kidney failure.

The current New York Magazine dives deep inside the navel with seven sprawling pages on Gawker. The rather tame procedural is conducted by Vanessa Grigoriadis, who's up front with the disclosures: Her NY Times wedding announcement was savaged by Gawker, New York Magazine currently employs two former Gawker editors, and Grigoriadis peeped managing editor Choire Sicha’s underwear.

Yet more proof Ann Coulter likes to hear herself talk - and that talk shows like that! She appeared on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, and talks about how Jews need perfecting - "we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say" - to the point of being Christians. Deutsch was shocked, argued with her, and went to commercial by saying, "Ann Coulter, author of If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, and if Ann Coulter had any brains, she would not say Jews need to be perfected. I'm offended by that personally."

A 29-year-old Chinatown resident was charged with murdering his new girlfriend in the apartment he shares with his grandmother. Michael Chin Lenahan allegedly called his brother in NJ to say "I screwed up." His mother later went to the apartment and found a woman's body on her son's bed, under clothes.

After two years in service and almost as long as media gossip fodder, Times Select, NYTimes.com's service that offered access to the rich archives of the New York Times through a paid subscription modeled, is officially dead. The service put certain current online content behind the Times Select wall, such as columns by Op-Ed writers, and there was much criticism, even from within the Times, about restricting access the paper.

MUSIC: Last week Craig Finn made a solo appearance amongst the books at Barnes & Noble, tonight he's with his rock band, The Hold Steady, playing another free show. Joining them are the Old 97’s, and newer band, Illinois. A triple-threat lineup with a can't-be-beat pricetag.

An argument escalated into arson and then a murder-suicide, all in front of a small child, in Borough Park early yesterday morning. After setting their apartment on fire, police say that Christopher Flynn shot his girlfriend Christina Scarabaggio and then turned the gun on himself. Scarabaggio's 4-year-old daughter Bianca Perez was found crying over her mother's body outside.

THEATER: We like our comedy like we like our women: black and absurd. So it’s promising that the press release for a new play by Kevin Mandel uses those two irresistible words to describe A New Television Arrives, Finally. The strange story concerns “an American couple visited by a charismatic man presenting himself as a television set. Is the handsome stranger a charlatan or a guru?” Emmy award-winning actor Tom Pelphrey [Guiding Light] leads the cast at tonight’s premiere performance. - John Del Signore