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*sigh*

Does anybody want a slightly used bird feeder? Apparently there's some tenant rule about only having patio furniture on our patios so my bird feeder must come down. I'd hate to see it wasted so if anyone wants it please let me know.

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There is so much wrong with this NY Times piece that I don't even know where to begin. Premise? Tell men you like beef and you will find your one true love, ladies. No, seriously, that's the premise. See:

MARTHA FLACH mentioned meat twice in her Match.com profile: “I love architecture, The New Yorker, dogs … steak for two and the Sunday puzzle.”

She was seeking, she added, “a smart, funny, kind man who owns a suit (but isn’t one) … and loves red wine and a big steak.”

The repetition worked. On her first date with Austin Wilkie, they ate steak frites. A year later, after burgers at the Corner Bistro in Greenwich Village, he proposed. This March, the rehearsal dinner was at Keens Steakhouse on West 36th Street, and the wedding menu included mini-cheeseburgers and more steak.

But wait, it gets better:

Ms. Wilkie was a vegetarian in her teens, and even wore a “Meat Is Murder” T-shirt. But by her 30s, she had started eating cow. By the time she placed the personal ad, she had come to realize that ordering steak on a first date had the potential to sate appetites not only of the stomach but of the heart.

Red meat sent a message that she was “unpretentious and down to earth and unneurotic,” she said, “that I’m not obsessed with my weight even though I’m thin, and I don’t have any food issues.” She added, “In terms of the burgers, it said I’m a cheap date, low maintenance.”

Ah, of course, all vegetarian women are pretentious, high maintenance and neurotic and that's why we can't get dates. It's all so clear to me now. However, just when you start to think, "Wow this is dumb and misogynistic!" the writer kicks it up a notch with this:

Restaurateurs and veterans of the dating scene say that for many women, meat is no longer murder. Instead, meat is strategy. “I’ve been shocked at the number of women actually ordering steak,” said Michael Stillman, vice president of concept development for the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, which opened the restaurant Quality Meats in April 2006 on West 58th Street.

Ok setting aside the really fucking insulting aspects of this whole sorry "article" I've gotta' say it's somewhere between a women's magazine self-help article and a press release for the beef industry. It's like beef is somehow the magic dating bullet all those 20 and 30 something single straight gals have been waiting for. Order what you think a guy wants you to order and he'll like you! Gosh we've never heard that one before.