Month: February 2005

MCCALL — Feb 7 — A notion has blossomed to address the holiday not by scorning it, but by redefining it as a time for celebrating The Greatest Love of All: Yourself. Quirkyalones aren’t looking for partners to make their lives complete. They prefer lifetimes of solitude to compromising their romantic integrity and feel just as comfortable single as they do in relationships. Roughly 70% are women. This attitude is becoming more prevalent among young women, in part because they no longer need to rely on husbands for financial security, experts say. One-quarter of U.S. women between ages 30 and 34 have never been married, almost four times the rate in 1970, according to the 2003 U.S. Census.

MCCALL — Feb 7 — A notion has blossomed to address the holiday not by scorning it, but by redefining it as a time for celebrating The Greatest Love of All: Yourself. Quirkyalones aren’t looking for partners to make their lives complete. They prefer lifetimes of solitude to compromising their romantic integrity and feel just as comfortable single as they do in relationships. Roughly 70% are women. This attitude is becoming more prevalent among young women, in part because they no longer need to rely on husbands for financial security, experts say. One-quarter of U.S. women between ages 30 and 34 have never been married, almost four times the rate in 1970, according to the 2003 U.S. Census.

NEWS SENTINEL — Feb 7 — In this increasingly specialized world of ours, there is literally something for everybody.  But you may ask: "Eric, those sites are for the uptown crowd; I’m a little more down-to-earth. Where can I go to find true love?"  Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I give you redneckandsingle.com.  Turns out rednecks are pretty much like the rest of us until it comes time to list their hobbies and tastes, which run the gamut from raisin’ critters to raisin’ crops to fixin’ stuff.  The site was founded by Kevin McIntosh of Winston-Salem, N.C., who saw this venture as a way to connect rednecks who find themselves living in an increasingly un-redneck age. 

NEWS SENTINEL — Feb 7 — In this increasingly specialized world of ours, there is literally something for everybody.  But you may ask: "Eric, those sites are for the uptown crowd; I’m a little more down-to-earth. Where can I go to find true love?"  Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I give you redneckandsingle.com.  Turns out rednecks are pretty much like the rest of us until it comes time to list their hobbies and tastes, which run the gamut from raisin’ critters to raisin’ crops to fixin’ stuff.  The site was founded by Kevin McIntosh of Winston-Salem, N.C., who saw this venture as a way to connect rednecks who find themselves living in an increasingly un-redneck age. 

RED NOVA — Feb 7 — Sprint is offering its customers access to mobile dating services. Two mobile dating services are available today to Sprint customers with select Sprint PCS Vision(SM) handsets: SMS.ac and Match.com Mobile. Three services are offered with SMS.ac: Flirt – search profiles for 25c per text. Clubs – join mobile communities to chat on any topic, 25c per message received. Channels – receive the news, horoscopes and more for $.25 per text message. With Match.com Mobile, powered by Enpocket’s Eden dating engine, users can sign up, explore and find matches for free. When users decide to communicate with their matches, they will be asked to subscribe for only $4.99 a month. Coming soon, Sprint will offer access to dating services from Lavalife.

Mark Brooks: Check out the upcoming mobile/wireless dating conference in San Francisco July 19-20.

TWIN CITIES PIONEER PRESS — Feb 6 — "I could tell (Ted) was a nice guy by the way he handled his dog and how Mai Mai responded to him," Taylor said.  Deborah Wood, author of "The Dog Lover's Guide to Dating: Using Cold Noses to Find Warm Hearts," says "people can see your gentle, warmer side when you're with your dog, which they don't necessarily see in other social situations."  62% of all U.S. households have pets, there are nearly 40 million single pet owners in the US, and during the first half of 2004, 16% of all unique visitors to Web sites visited Personals sites.  One gem: Don't date anyone who names his dog after a weapon. "Run, don't walk to the nearest self-help book section if you find yourself attracted to a guy with Dobermans named Smith and Wesson," Wood writes. 

The full article was originally published at Twin Cities Pioneer Press, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Stats like this should make the industry sit up…and beg.  Perhaps DateMyPet and AnimalAttraction are onto something!  My advice to the perennial singles out there; borrow a big fluffy dog, go sit outside a Starbucks, see what happens.