Craig's Lonely Hearts Club Band

When Kate and I used to live together in Adelaide, we spent a lot of time giggling over the personal ads in our regional newspaper. We never laughed at the person who placed the ad; rather we sniggered at the very specific list of criteria that those unattached hearts were seeking. On many occasions, singles were searching for someone with a particular hair colour, or eye colour, or musical taste. Others were merely looking for women with a pulse. Or not – sometimes the pulse was entirely optional. Whoever you were, or whatever you were into, it seemed there was someone in Adelaide’s regional newspaper who would love you. And it was at once a satisfying and terrifying thought.

So I’ve come to Chicago and am now equally addicted to reading the online personals on Craig’s List, a catch-all website on which you can find absolutely anything you’re looking for – an apartment, a fish tank, concert tickets, even true love.

My favourite part of the site is Missed Connections, where lovestruck Chicagoans post messages to the object of their desires, seen fleetingly from a bus window or someone with whom they shared a three-second conversation at the local supermarket. I particularly enjoy when I find a post that comments on someone from my bus, or from my local area, and I always wonder whether I have noticed them too.

If you get a few spare minutes, you should check out “Missed Connections”. I think that posting there is possibly braver than placing a generic personal ad. In the case of the latter, people are just seeking someone they can make happy, or who can make them happy too. These Craig’s List posts specifically identify a person and pin them down to a precise location when they made someone’s day.

But the question is, would I ever post a “Missed Connection”? Or would I respond to one if I identified myself in the description? Who knows, but it would make a fun read all the same I think.