The Dire Corrector’s blog

    I had a 7 month job or, "sentence" in northern Wisconsin in 2003.  Out of boredom, for an experiment I decided to try placing an honest personal ad in Salon just to see what sort of results I would get.  The one response I got that interested me was from a guy that used to write for the Onion. Let's call him Mr. Onion.   I figured he was at least worth checking out.  We e-mailed each other for a few weeks and it turned out we liked a lot of the same comedy and movies, and our e-mail conversations were rather enjoyable.  So I told Mr. Onion I would meet him in a coffee house in Madison.

    I'd made the mistake of telling Mr. Onion that I liked Star Trek...and by "liked" I meant that I used to watch it in high school.  The first thing Mr. Onion said to me on our date was "I nearly brought my tricorder."  It all went downhill from there.  Later in our conversation we were discussing an X-files episode and he said "And I know that one is accurate because I've written a book on paranormal phenomenon."

   A few months later I got an e-mail from Mr. Onion saying that he was writing an article on the online dating experience and he wanted my input.  I decided to keep my mouth shut.

    My sister, who also perpetually tries to be my matchmaker, remarked to me "I've found somebody that is too geeky for YOU."  I smiled and told her my Mr. Onion story.  For once I was able to top her.