More Meet Market Survivors, And A Brand New Contestant!

Just to catch up, here's some news about another two daters that have contacted me:

Dena dropped her compliments not long ago, and was pleasant and informative. Her backstory is that she met Mackenzie at a party, and that's how she got involved in the column. Apparently, I was very much keen on the real deal behind her date in my own writeup - spot-on, practically. She mentioned that, even back then in early June, Tom knew about the blog. Veeeerrry interesting. She was flattered by my comments about her in the blog and thanked me for them. I wish to her continuing good luck on the dating scene.

Also, I heard from the lovely and talented Jen Dziura, who was featured in Meet Market just prior to when I started writing about it here. She also paid her compliments and gave me the scoop on one of the column's former writers, Danica Lo. I somewhat knew already that Ms. Lo is a Dartmouth alumni and used her alumni connections quite heavily for her journalistic purposes (both the contest and her other clips for the Post), but here's how deep it got according to Jen:

Later I went to one of the Post's in-person mixers, and it was
basically like an alumni gathering of Dartmouth people, because the
reporter, Danica, had been harvesting all her old college contacts.

Oh my! Not that I have a problem with Dartmouth grads (Ms. Dziura is an alumni herself), but I think this concept is journalistically cringeworthy. It would have been better to do a little more legwork and cast a wider net for sources and contestants, you think?
(Honest clarification: Jen admits that she found more than a few Dartmouth people at the party, but that there defintely were non-Dartmouth people present - as in, "the other, oh, 195 people who didn't go to Dartmouth." So we both regret insinuating that this might have started as the "Meet-Dartmouth Market". That said, this posting on the Dartmouth Alumni Forums indicates that Danica was indeed looking to use her own alumni connections for the dating column, and I couldn't find anything similar at any alumni boards for the other 3,000+ accredited institutions in the United States. I'm not sure what any of this proves, other than that I have way too much time on my hands.)

Anyway, you can find Jen at http://www.jenisfamous.com/, and also at her new blog for the Williamsburg Spelling Bee held at Pete's Candy Store, for which you can find an updated schedule here - drop by sometime. She also performs live comedy, and is a writer and model. Hooray for the uber-talented!

Wait a sec... they have cocktail parties for the former daters? Oh wow. Wouldn't that just be a field day for me? So much to ask about!

Well, if they do have another one, I should be going along, because...

(*drumroll*)

As hinted previously, I will be participating in Meet Market myself! I finally got around to submitting an application - of course, I didn't announce myself in my application as the rogue blogger, but they knew exactly who I was. Luckily, both Mackenzie and Tom have an awesome sense of humor, and thought it'd be great to bring me on board as a single, eager dater willing to take a chance on love. (and putting myself at risk for potential widespread ridicule and embarassment, similar to what I've dished out to so many past daters over the past months)

I will write more details when I'll be allowed to do so - I'm not to leak anything until the story runs in the Post first. Also, this at least means that we'll have a guest blogger to cover my participation, as my own opinion would contain an immeasurable conflict-of-interest. All in all, more exciting things to come!

See you on Sunday, when we get back to usual business...