A few moments at my local Staples store in Connecticut recently is the inspiration for this evening's post about missed connections.

I happened to approach the entrance of the store just at the same second as a 30ish, very attractive shopper. We were both dressed in a similar fashion with blue striped shirts and jeans. Once in the store I headed over to the writing instrument aisle to pick up some gel pens. In the five minutes that I spent selecting the pens she had a half filled shopping cart of file folders and other supplies. She was ahead of me in the short line and glanced back at me twice and made eye contact. Another cashier opened up a second register and she looked back at me a third time, perhaps wondering if I would move over to the other line. I didn't make a move and she headed over there. No more meeting of the eyes after that and I left the store before she did.

This short event had me thinking back to my single days when I had never heard the concept of "missed connections" and am not sure if it existed except in publications such as New York Magazine and perhaps some hip newspapers in cities, but I could see how interesting it might be to place ads relating to people who had caught your eye whether on the subway, in a restaurant, or whatever!

I read last fall that some Occupy members in Manhattan were placing missed connection ads relating to other people they had seen in Zuccotti Park, but apparently were to shy to approach on the spot.

A quick review of the New York Craigslist reveals page after page of missed connections. I picked out two for featuring here because both relate to previous posts. 

The first missed connection relates to a guy who likes an employee of the SoHo Apple Store and wants to take her out for a drink. This is fascinating to me because in May, 2009 I posted about the Genius Bar being a place to meet a potential boy/girlfriend.

The second Craigslist concerns itself with a fellow who was sitting in front of a beautiful woman on Megabus today on the ride from Boston. Last year I posted a general story about Megabus, but hadn't considered it as a way to meet a potential girlfriend or boyfriend.

I pose the question to any OSers who have placed missed connections ads and wish to admit as much: "did anyone respond to your ad?"

Below, the two Craigslist entries that relate to my posts about Apple Stores and Megabus:

My post on meeting a boyfriend/girlfriend at the Genius Bar. Click on the image for the post:

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