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Where Californians (Almost) Find Love: Most Popular Places For Craigslist 'Missed Connections'
Where all the studs and babes hang (Photo by cks via the Creative Commons on Flickr)
Psychology Today combed through the postings on Craigslist's "Missed Connections" in the United States to find out the most popular locations for almost finding love at first sight.The map shows that Californians on the prowl are up in the gym working on their fitness, specifically 24 Hour Fitness. It would have been interesting to see the data broken down more by city or county. (We'd have guessed Trader Joe's might have been in the running.)
The full map is worth a look, and most of the entries kind of make sense. People in New York are checking out people on the subway, while in Illinois and New Jersey they're checking out people on the train. Folks in Utah are looking for the one while they're in college. Nevadans are at the casino. The most shocking thing is how popular Walmart is in the missed connections sections of many (sparsely populated) states, despite its reputation.
It's mostly men doing the missing: the survey says 59 percent of the posts are m4w and 27 percent are m4w. 13 percent are w4m, while a slim 1 percent are w4w.
We pulled a few excerpts from a few recent missed connections of local 24 Hour Fitness locations, which seem to be most dudes looking for dudes: Like this one from the sauna:
You = blond dude with tats and a tight body in the Glendale 24 hr fitness sauna Me = other blond dude
Too many people in there today for me to strike up a convo with you but hit me up.
Or this one from aimed at an employee:
You work at 24 hour fitness in Hollywood. Never had the slightest inclination that you were into guys and I'm still not sure. But we've worked out at the same time a few times recently and locked eyes just a little too long. The only time we talked was a few days ago when I was rinsing out my shake bottle. You gave me some advice because you thought I was doing something else.
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But some dudes were looking for ladies, like in this one:
You were on a bike at the Sherman Oaks 24 hour fitness on Sunday night at around 11. I looked over and you caught me looking at you. I think that you are very attractive and sexy and I wish I had talked with you.
Still, those don't feel as uniquely Angeleno as the posts that take place at an audition or a Hollywood lunch party, between two stoners in the Valley or Runyon Canyon, of course.
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