Dept. of Potentially Interesting Developments

A few weeks ago, I heard a story on NPR about a new pre-date ritual beginning to surface in some circles: “ Googling” your date. Put their name and address into Google, and fire away, and all sorts of interesting bits might come up. Not quite a background check and not quite stalking, it seems harmless enough and even a little interesting.

Well, comes now Ex-SO.com, which appears to take the idea several steps further — it’s like Epinions for dating. Interesting, but also a little bit creepy.

Dept. of My Friends

My pal Chris Mohney is writing a travel diary for Slate this week. The subject, oddly enough, is Las Vegas. Enjoy. (Longtime readers will recognize Chris from his earlier entry here; rest assured the dolphin recanted, and the ADA was forced to drop the charges.)