No One In Town But Big George's
Home Appliance Mart Carries
Familiar Faces,
Strange Places
A native Detroiter spots past dates in The DJN
engagements, weddings and births sections.
LIZ LIWAZER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
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pon receiving The Jewish
News, I, like many of my
contemporaries, both at-
tached and still looking,
turn immediately to the Mile-
stones section.
Sometimes, it can sting. Re-
cently, I had the honor (horror?)
of seeing engagement, wedding
and birth announcements placed
by guys I have dated or their sig-
nificant others — all in one issue.
Although each was originally
from a different part of the coun-
try, he still ended up in this news-
paper, hitched to one of Detroit's
finest.
For this 31-year-old SJF, the
reality has been an endless
stream of being fixed up by
friends, their third cousins and
the people those relatives knew
in high school. Since moving to
Chicago from suburban Detroit
more than seven years ago, the
"blind date well" has rarely run
dry. I have been fixed up by peo-
ple who barely knew me but felt
in their bones that I would fall
madly in love with their son,
nephew or ex-boyfriend. .
Working for a time at the Jew-
ish Federation of Chicago got the
ball rolling even before the ink on
my new business cards was dry.
Office rivalry took on a new level
of intensity when it came to guid-
ing a young, (apparently) attrac-
tive woman's future (See? I've
started talking like a personal ad).
"Who cares if you have similar
interests when you could be
spared from spinsterhood and
guaranteed a life of wedded
bliss." Or, "So what if the secre-
tary from accounting only met his
mother once in the grocery store?
She seems like a nice woman —
you know they can't prove all
mental illness will be inherited
by the first-born son."
And never mind my passion
for travel — "He's been to Epcot
Center ..."
That recent edition of The Jew-
ish News brought back memories
I had suppressed since the oblig-
atory blow-by-blow recounting of
details:
Former bachelor No. 1 was the
ex-boyfriend of my roommate
from University of Michigan. His
name recently popped up in The
DJN births column, announcing
the arrival of his second child.
"David" (names have been
Liz Liwazer lives in Chicago and
has successfully avoided being
set up for the past 18 months.
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changed to protect the incom-
patible) seemed to possess an in-
creasingly important quality —
a good sense of humor. Our brief
phone conversations went pret-
ty well because I kind of thought
he was sort of funny.
He thought he was funny, too.
David produced a "Blind Date
Fact Sheet" from his pocket with-
in 35 seconds of identifying each
other. This fun-filled fact sheet
listed his physical characteris-
tics, likes, dislikes and an as-
sortment of other personal facts.
Very clever. If you're 13.
We had an OK time; I could
see how this guy would be a col-
lege boyfriend, but not fodder for
an adult relationship.
I thought I might see him
again — first dates, especially the
blind kind, tend not to be the
most relaxing of situations. With-
in three weeks, I got a call from
the instigator of this date. David
was engaged.
"Alex," former bachelor No. 2,
smiled smugly beside his blush-
ing new bride, their photo of bliss
appearing in The DJN weddings.
Being fixed up with Alex made
me wonder about probabilities
and statistics. What are the
chances of getting fixed up with
the same person twice? Certain-
ly it can occur. But three times?
First, a co-worker told me her
brother's best friend Alex was
moving to Chicago from Wash-
ington, D.C. Two weeks later, a
friend called to say her friend's
sister's friend, Alex, was moving
to Chicago, ready for a fix-up.
Turns out, Alex had a thing for
the co-worker. Not an innocent
crush, but hard-core affection,
borderline obsession. Unfortu-
nately for him, the feeling was
not mutual.
Hearing about Alex's unre-
quited love for my co-worker
wasn't exactly what I had in
mind for a first date. Add to that
the fact that my co-worker was
dating Alex's cousin. Alex's con-
sistent claims that his cousin
didn't know what a gem he had
continued through dessert until
my date passionately proclaimed
that he would worship Amy — if
she would just give him a chance.
Well, none of these guys may
have been my Prince Charming,
but at least they found some
magic elsewhere. Oh, look — an-
other familiar face in the en-
gagements section — I can't go
into details now. I have a date. O
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