It's that time of year again! The time when you go to a public place with ice and skate about to cheesy piped-in tunes with your boy or girlfriend and suddenly, awash in love, rosy from the fresh air, he or she proposes. Fortunately, there is an audience of your peers to videotape and comment upon the momentous event. And fortunately, also, you say yes, because...does anyone ever say no? We want to see that video.

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Ageloff, from his Prison Inmates profile

​Thank you, New York Post, for easing our transition into the post-holiday work week so warmly. For all of those single ladies bemoaning the lack of good men in the city, several hundred words have been devoted to the relationship-ability of 52-year-old Brooklyn man Roy Ageloff, who used to be a millionaire (and a free man) until he confessed to running "one of the biggest mob-linked stock frauds in U.S. history." One should always aim high, after all.

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Last week we introduced you to Noman, Elmo's bitter, unemployed cousin, a muppet who blames his lack of success on the fact that he's been horribly overshadowed by more famous, conniving, manipulative relatives...like Elmo. Noman is trying to expose Elmo for the "evil little monster he is" via, naturally, a web series. He, also naturally, has a Kickstarter. And he has a response to our initial post, an interview with his handler, Lamarr Williams -- Noman is pissed we didn't speak to him directly. Typical celebrity.

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​Under the semi-serious auspices of the Center for Missed Connections, 24-year-old Ingrid Burrington, who grew up in California, has been studying Craigslist's outlet for the lonely, the hopeful, the romantic, the horny, and the insane for more than two years now. It all started with what she calls a whimsical question: "What's the loneliest place in any given city, and how can I measure it?" From there she turned to chronicling Missed Connections, which led to a map for an art show in 2009 at Pratt, a book project, and, currently, a residency through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. From her website:

The Center for Missed Connections (CMC) began as a project simply to identify where the most missed connections happen in a given city. New York City is home to the pilot program, chosen for its high traffic and for the propensity of posters to include specific cross-streets or location information. Since then, the analysis has developed a thorough taxonomy of the Missed Connection and a method for identifying whether one has, in fact, had a Missed Connection. The CMC seeks to understand the longing, both poetic and banal, within public spaces.

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Behind these doors...

​Our friends over at Fucked in Park Slope are busily compiling answers to their second annual sex survey. Having something of an interest in such things -- intellectually speaking, of course -- we were curious about what this year's results might tell us. We talked to the two contributors who created the survey, Meredith and Vee, to get an update on the state of sex in Park Slope (FYI: "People in Park Slope care about sex, or at least they want to know how often their neighbors are getting it on") and to get a little teaser, if you will, as to what we can expect when the official results come out next week.

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The joys of pen pals. (Not a letter from Gaddafi.)

​Following the death of "one of the world's longest-serving dictators," former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on October 20, the New York Post has found one person, his 81-year-old pen pal Louis Schlamowitz, a retired Brooklyn florist, who is actually a bit bummed -- not that he didn't see it coming. The two had corresponded since the late '60s, and Schlamowitz has a "pile of letters and autographed pictures," though no song dedicated in his honor (after all, there is only one Condi Rice).

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​Ricky Robinett is a software engineer who, in his "down time" from his day job, has given himself the task of launching one project a month in 2011. He's currently done nine, one of which -- we admit, the one that caught our eye -- is FakeGirlfriend.co, the purpose of which is pretty self-explanatory. As the site says, "Are you tired of being embarrassed by the fact that you don't have a girlfriend? Do you wish that you could get interrupted by a loving phone-call during man time? Let me introduce you to FakeGirlfriend." This is not the first of the many ways technology can make people think you are less lonely than you actually are (here are some great suggestions on how to do that!), but we were intrigued nonetheless. We got in touch with Robinett to find out more.

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​Imagine our surprise when, last night, we were just poking around in Craigslist Missed Connections -- not for ourselves, mind you, for a friend -- and we discovered not one, not two, but a veritable plethora of possible connections related to cats. Cat fashions, cat food buying, cat litter buying, owning cats...We take this as significant evidence that having a cat -- being a crazy cat lady or cat man, even -- is not the relationship killer once alleged to be. Having a cat may actually help you meet someone! The only other possibility is that cat people and Craigslist Missed Connections people have a large overlap. Mm, no. It's that cats are bringing people together! Having a cat, if you're lucky, maybe even get you laid. Use this knowledge for good, not evil, please. After the jump: Are you any of these cat people? Someone (human) may be interested.

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Not Eddie.

​There is a sweet/weird and all too brief interview with 84-year-old Chelsea resident Herbert Rauch in DNA Info today. Aside from being one of those quintessential New York characters, Rauch is a bird person -- we don't truly understand bird people, but we respect their right to be bird people -- and he has a parrot named Eddie who, for 35 years, has walked up and down Tenth Avenue with Rauch (presumably on his shoulder). Rauch and Eddie are close, as well as, clearly, a fixture of the neighborhood.

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​Here is what you might call an unusual love story. Ned Nefer, a real, live man, is married to a mannequin, or at least says he's married to a mannequin, and for summer this year they are vacationing upstate. Ned's mannequin woman, who is named Teagan, is made of wood. Therefore she cannot walk. Nonetheless, the couple will be making their journey -- 70 miles from Syracuse to Watertown -- by foot, or at least Nefer will walk, pushing Teagan in a wheelchair. They are traveling to the former Children's Home on State Street, where the two met. Via the Daily News, Nefer is quite happy, according to a social welfare examiner, and not "dangerous at all."

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