I'm passionate about ideas and honest communication so I find the state of our politics and the lies told therein to be surreal and infuriating. Hoping Obama can be more effective in a 2nd term. He's smart with a good heart but has done some boneheaded stuff that makes me wanna smack him. I'm deeply moved by design, aesthetics, all things sensory; I'll swoon over a great piece of art, furniture, architecture, music, film or a meal. I'm a style-savvy smarty-pants, uptown/downtown blend of traditional and progressive...a first amendment hawk who's sad about much of popular culture. PBS/NPR junkie. I'm often aggravated/embarrassed by D. C./Madison Avenue/Hollywood but believe our society has goodness and higher purpose at its core: We're not Rome *quite* yet. Some heroes? Bobby Kennedy, Fred Rogers, Jimmy Carter, Bill Moyers, Bono, Robert Reich, Vonnegut, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Steven Colbert. I'm aware of new style trends but rarely subscribe: give me Astaire/Cooper/Grant /Brando classics any time (think Banana Republic). Exquisite/pricey things are fine but I also revel in a great vintage find; for me, aesthetic value beats a fancy pedigree. I love both cooking at home and dining out - usually healthy, never boring and hope for a wellness mentality in my mate. I love to learn, am also a teacher and long for that two-way dynamic with my sweetie. I'll make you laugh 'til the cows come home. Romantic to the core, I need the same from my beloved. I enjoy shopping, the arts fine/not-so-fine, exploring architecture and design, lectures, film including classics/foreign, travel, daily work-outs, reading and current events. Unlike your typical Jewish boy, I'm handy and look pretty studly in a tool belt. I may wanna see what YOU look like in it some time, though. ; ) I've had a few careers - among them interior designer, newspaper restaurant critic, art director - all verbiage and visuals stuff. Recently moved from L. A. back home to build an apparel/lifestyle brand and sure could use a muse. All told, I'm a sharp, fun, big-hearted lug whose fondest wish is to meld sublimely with one stylish, witty, substantive gal.

We have a Tracy/Hepburn vibe. Ok, it's trite but still, what a model! As for you? Be sweeTart. Be plucky yet unafraid to show some vulnerability. A coequal style/substance package. In re style, I hope you dig the modern and/or classic over glitzy, frou-frou or saccharine. A great shoe collection & regular pedicure - and manicure - gets my attention, I must say. Hey, I worship at the altar of She that is Woman and I do so head to toe: details matter. In re substance, read a newspaper, be kind to animals & know that BOTH Beatles & Stones can rock. Healthy/-ish and active lifestyle preferred. Empathy, conversational skills, manners, wisdom, a smidge of kink, HUMOR. Have a compelling viewpoint. Let's shoot for mutual adoration, accommodation and respect. Cuddle and watch classic films with me? Bonus points if you never use the word "party" as a verb. And please fully embody that mysterious and divine force which is Femininity. It keeps we men on our toes, acts as cosmic counterbalance to male idiocy and brutality and ideally smells really nice. I'm determined to find, pamper & treasure my Queen. Maybe she's You.

Ideal Relationship: Communication. I want to 'get' her, know what she's thinking or about to say and feel safe in telling her anything. Common politics as they bespeak mutual values. Shared hobbies/activities are glue which make time pass with more fun and joy. Long talks. Travel. Power sharing (in and out of the bedroom) is huge for forging respect, intimacy and heat. Fighting fair. And as a Style Guy, I crave beauty and fine (not to say *solely* "high-cost") living with my beloved in a hip, livable home filled with art, food, family and friends.

I design and manufacture a vintage-inspired high-end greeting card line sold in better boutiques, museum stores, etc. I hope to soon launch an imprinted apparel brand which I'd like to eventually morph into a full-spectrum lifestyle label, a la Anthropologie.

Verbiage and visuals is who I am.

Parallel parking. Seriously.

Throwing together something in the kitchen lickety-split.

Doing American regional and foreign accents; also have a healthy barnyard animal repertoire. Hey, we could put on a show. ; )

Talking politics and current events (but also history, science, all sorts of Real World Stuff) with someone who enjoys same. That said, I can also go on and on about the dorky or esoteric. Just kick or kiss me to shut me up.

Blanket fort and flashlight play. Mebbe even s'mores if you're a very good girl.

Building and fixing junk. Making something great out of next to nothing. I may even earn a forehead star from you.

Giving head rubs...hand rubs...back rubs...foot rubs...pretty much any kinda rubbin's.

Trite but true -- most every woman tells me my eyes and mouth. What can I say -- I can't argue with statistics. And I'm not one to second guess a passel o' women. Mama didn't raise no fool.

I think I'm empathetic and a good listener.

I'm pretty sure I usually smell nice.

READIN': I'm a rabid consumer of the printed word though most of it is online and in magazines and newspapers. Daily rations of NYTimes, LATimes, Huffington Post, NY Magazine, New Yorker, LA Weekly (yes, I've lived in both NY and LA and still love my adopted cities but mainly, the above are just good reading no matter one's locale) ...Vanity Fair, Atlantic, Harpers, The Economist and on and on. Icanhascheezburger and its peer sites also figure into the humor mix. As for books, favorite novel is Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions.

WATCHIN': Scores and scores of film faves but for profile purposes, let's go with a Top 40 of Dr. Strangelove, Good Will Hunting, The Player, Knocked Up, Lolita, Save the Tiger, Harold & Maude, The Natural, Gods And Monsters, The Hustler, Phenomenon, Sideways, Ordinary People, Midnight Cowboy, Syriana, Barton Fink, His Girl Friday, Best In Show, The Freshman, Pleasantville, The Deer Hunter, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Glory, Defending Your Life, The Graduate, Meet John Doe, Sunset Boulevard, Rosemary's Baby, Cool Hand Luke, The Wizard Of Oz, Superbad, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, 40-Year Old Virgin, Young Frankenstein, Love And Death, Flirting With Disaster, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bridesmaids, Jerry Maguire.

MORE WATCHIN': I'm an obnoxious TV snob in some ways. But I'll indulge you in terms of watching your show...while rubbing your feet and leafing through my magazine, paying semi-attention to Mama's stories. ("But wait," you say. "You only have two hands." "Never you mind that," I reply.) Some faves (current and in rerun) would be Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Larry Sanders Show, Letterman, Mad Men, Mr. Selfridge, Reno 911, Portlandia, American Pickers, Million Dollar Listing, Downton Abbey, Flipping Out, Archer, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Robot Chicken & various Adult Swim shows, Davey & Goliath (yes, I know -- weird) ...and R.I.P., Space Ghost Coast to Coast and maybe the greatest thing ever -- Mystery Science Theater 3000.

LISTENIN': Steely Dan, Beatles (George, since you asked), Neil Young, Dire Straits, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Who, Dave Matthews, Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers, REM, Clapton, The Doors, U2, Roxy Music's Avalon (Best. Make-out. Record. Ever.) Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Ella Fitzgerald, Jeff Buckley, Simon & Garfunkel, CSN, Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, Little Feat, Miles Davis, James Taylor, early Elton John, Letters To Cleo, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, Dylan, John McLaughlin, Cat Stevens, Linda Ronstadt, Al Green, Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, K. D. Lang, John Hiatt, Cream, Tori Amos, Sinatra, Hendrix, Santana, The Clarks, John Coltrane, Darlene Love yearly on Letterman singing "Christmas Baby Please Come Home", Pretenders, early Dionne Warwick, Ten Thousand Maniacs, Nat King Cole, Van Morrison, Aimee Mann, Ray Charles, Traffic, Throwing Muses, Patsy Cline, Chet Baker, Todd Rundgren, Roy Orbison, Laura Nyro, John Meyer. Baroque horn/harpsichord stuff such as Bach...newer classical like Copland...Third World evocative stuff like Russian and Middle Eastern soundscapes -- melodies that transport you.

I'm also a drummer but have no drums at present. Your-thigh-in-the-car may get an occasional gentle thwap. What? You never fancied yourself a sex cymbal?

EATIN': I was once the restaurant critic for In Pittsburgh Newsweekly (City Paper's predecessor) and also have a culinary management degree obtained later in life soooo...I know my way around the chow. I'm also comfy in the kitchen and adore makin' bacon with my Honey. Dining out is fun too, of course, but I probably cook dinner 4-5 nights a week. Tag-teaming such could be neat or I'm happy to shoulder that load for the team. Ethnic cuisines rock my world most of all, followed by standard American fare of all sorts and then nouvelle, hifalutin' stylings -- in that order. Fortunate to have lived in Manhattan, Los Angeles and Seattle so have tasted one helluva lotta cultures. Faves? Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern/Greek/Turkish, Persian, Ethiopian, Sushi, North African, Afghani, Korean, Italian of course (eggplant parm = swoon). I love seafood as well as sushi. While I do usually try to eat healthfully, classic American road food and regional fare from time to time is fun such as BBQ, Neapolitan (crazy for wood- and coal-fired ovens) pizza, cheese steaks, excellent dogs and burgers, great deli fare, fried seafood or a lobster roll and on and on. I could watch "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" any night of the week. Great eating experiences do not have to be fancy-shmancy, by any means, but quality ingredients and deft preparation are key. I *do* also have something of a sweet tooth but we ain't goin' there.

We *all* need air, water, cell mitosis, ground transportation. C'mon, people...really? My humorous, quirky choices are meant to be illuminating of who I am. With that caveat, then:

Burt's Bees lip balm from October thru April. And still I pick at the lipses. Please. Make me stop. Withhold kisses. Whatever it takes.

Sriracha. If you don't know what this is, we may be ill-fated.

Dr. Bronner's liquid Castille soap; eucalyptus is my go-to but another scent is negotiable (perhaps almond) if eucalyptus squicks you out.

Filtered or bottled water, please. Chlorine and PCB's? Ummmm...mebbe not.

Lotsa daily veggies and fruits. I build my meals around them. Not that I don't enjoy the tasty creatures as well.

The perfect down/feather-blend pillow. Daddy needs his sleep.

Neutral colors. (Lucky number seven. Yes, I cheated: I like to live on the edge.)

How stupendously stupid we can be as a culture: How did we get here? And how did Mitt Romney's head not just explode from all the lies he told? You take care now, Mitt. As important as politics is to me (and all of us), it's sadly appalling most of the time. GRRRrrrrrr...

I wish I could be as heroic and selfless as many great people I've encountered in the world. I'm workin' on it.

Well. Sex. Yeah. But perhaps more than 'sex' even, romance and, the cosmos willing, Love in my life. I have much to offer and want to experience the sublime with my She.

Lots more stuff. We need junk to talk about on the first date. And our 501st date.

...fit to be tied.

That's NOT what I meant. Well. Mostly, anyway.

You're naughty.

I'm a sucker for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Especially where Linus speaks his soliloquy. We actually had to learn that psalm in grade school. Maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway, makes me a mite misty, it does.

...you truly grasp what makes *you* uniquely human and uniquely a Woman. I want to celebrate those things with you.

...you prize inherent value in people/places/things over their pedigree.

...you delight in wondrous things.

...you're dying to experience my barnyard animals repertoire up close and personal.

Good luck to you in your search for contentment and fulfillment!