Because last night we spoke to a womanizer who gave us the insightful advice that this is the time in your life to gaze into the eyes of people, until you start to blush, and take it from there.

This is your opportunity to explore emotions and relations, before you have your three kids and baking cookies in a house somewhere. (Loving it, of course.) Seeing that he is a networker deluxe, he jokingly suggested that he would start scouting interesting characters for us to get to know. Although slightly, utterly, resistant to look at love as a mission and a business, it got us thinking about what list of criteria we might present. Our only belief is that the universe knows better than we do regarding who we should be with, but naturally, we are aware of certain characteristics we value above others. By really narrowing it down, there are two main ones:

- Confident and utterly comfortable in yourself
- Intelligent humor (Filip & Fredrik, Ricky Gervais, Mitch Hedberg)

From there we could add a set of bonus traits:

- Handsome, beautiful, tall, dark
- Driven, entrepreneurial, a doer
- Passionate, about anything
- Kind, golden hearted
- Love making out
- Great dancer
- Swimmer, tennis or basketball player
- Curious
- Likes Billie Holiday, Al Green, Håkan Hellström
- Possibly diagnosed with adhd, or very talkative

If you feel that this applies to you, or if you know of fantastic men with these qualities, please let us know. We might have a completely inaccurate view of what we want, but we also know that trying and failing is a great way to learn.

For quite some time, New York magazine has been posting very entertaining sex diaries, where urbanites share some facts of life. Our favorite contributor has to be The Ex-Banker Living on Alcohol, Hook-ups, and Unemployment. Here's nearly 24 hours of that special kind of romance we are most fond of;

1 p.m. Wake up. I think I brought someone home though not really sure because he’s not here. I almost want to ask my doorman if I came home alone last night, but I make the executive decision not to.

8 p.m. Dinner with one of my old men. I am currently dating a few to finance my Manhattan meal plan. I promised myself the liquid diet, but not when you are having a free fabulous dinner at Del Posto. After dinner, mumble an excuse about not feeling well.

1 a.m. With friends at Marquee, where I catch the eye of a handsome boy in an Hermès tie and immediately start eye-B.J.-ing him. He is a 28-year-old M.D. who graduated from Yale. He buys me SoCo-lime shots and I tell him that 28 years old is too young to be an M.D. He responds that he’s just that good.

4 a.m. He asks me to come back to his place and I’m skeptical, but he says he lives on Park Avenue with his older brothers. He has me at “Park Avenue.”

5:30 a.m. Sitting in his penthouse apartment, he opens a bottle of Dom and we watch South Park—that should have been the first sign. We pass out in his room. I think we hook up.

DAY THREE
8 a.m. He freaks out and asks me to leave. When I get home, I look him up on Facebook and see that he graduated HIGH SCHOOL in 2009. He is 17 YEARS OLD and it was his parents’ penthouse.

Of course we love Miranda July! And since we're having something of a literature week on the blog, the master of storytelling ought to be present.

For the first six months I just walked around in a constant state of amazement. I looked at other couples and wondered how they could be so calm about it. They held hands as if the weren't holding hands. When Steve and I held hands, I had to keep looking down to marvel at it. There was my hand, the same hand I've always had - oh, but look! What is it holding? It's holding Steve's hand! Who is Steve? My three-dimensional boyfriend. Each day I wondered what would happen next. What happens when you stop wanting, when you are happy. I supposed I would go on being happy forever. I knew I would not mess things up by growing bored. I had done that once before.

Excerpt from Making Love in 2003, one of several short stories in the Nobel, Booker and Pulitzer Price winning No One Belongs Here More Than You.

The brilliant Noah Baumbach, a handsome man himself, describes the evolution and decline of romance in a style of the "unpronounceable", "foodie guide book".
In The Zagat History of My Last Relationship he proves that there is a dining establishment for every step of the way.

...

THE CHICK & HEN
Perfect for breakfast “after sleeping together,” with “killer coffee” that will “help cure your seven-beer/three-aquavit hangover.” Not that you need it—your “amplified high spirits” after having had sex for the first time in “eight months” should do the trick.

DESARCINA’S
So what if she thought the movie was “pretentious and contrived” and you felt it was a “masterpiece” and are dying to inform her that “she doesn’t know what she’s talking about”? Remember, you were looking for a woman who wouldn’t “yes” you all the time. And after one bite of chef Leonard Desarcina’s “duck manqué” and a sip of the “generous” gin Margaritas you’ll start to see that she might have a point.

/.../

VANDERWEI’S
Be careful not to combine “four dry sakes” with your “creeping feeling of insecurity and dread,” or you might find yourself saying, “Wipe that damn grin off your face!” The bathrooms are “big and glamorous,” so you won’t mind spending an hour with your cheek pressed against the “cool tiled floor” after she “walks out.” And the hip East Village location can’t be beat, since her apartment is “within walking distance,” which makes it very convenient if you should choose to “lean on her buzzer for an hour” until she calls “the cops.”

Excerpt from The New Yorker, September 30th 2002.
And, Noah, we'll just cook for you at home instead.

Dating site okCupid analyzed 500,000 first contacts looking at key words and their response rates and we believe it is pretty applicable to life afk, away from keyboard, too. Although a 'Hello' and smile is sweet, the English language is equipped with opening phrases that needs a reply, hence starts a conversation.

Then again, we are in no position to hand out dating advice, but we do long for the day to say "You had me at What's up".

Vision in pink-Grynet definitely acts as a sources of inspiration with "Ta ingen skit!"-policy and promoting "Man blir kär i vem man vill", but possibly the most when we are considering careers where you could suggest going on a date with Zlatan as actual work.