I'm a single native Atlantan, no kids, no pets, no crazy exes lurking in the bushes and as drama-free (and drama-averse) as they come. I'm also debt-free and hyper-educated yet completely down-to-earth and emotionally healthy. I was blessed with an ongoing, active, spontaneous sense of humor and can find something funny in most happenings. I get along with almost everyone but prefer those who are on an even keel. I'm a diplomat by nature and am good at motivating others toward positive solutions because I listen attentively and care about people.

Likes: smart people, funny people, warmhearted people and people who know they don't always have answers but who always seek to do the right thing; the information science provides; the mysteries science cannot answer; the lessons of history; the beauty of the English language in its myriad manifestations; gingerbread men.

Dislikes: crowds, disappearing farms and farm land, most commercial TV and most commercial advertising, minivans and gargantuan SUVs, religious nuts, the insurance industry, shopping, Wal-Mart, being rushed, "It is what it is."

Although I take some things seriously, that doesn't include myself. I am content to be alone and do not have to be doing something or going somewhere constantly. Tender companionship, though, is one of life's treasures.

I have a flexible schedule, allowing me to fill an occasional slow day with purely personal pursuits. I am grateful that my life can be unstructured, unlike earlier years working and/or going to school all the time. It's a good time of life. Nothing left to "prove." I've learned that if you laugh often and stay open-minded, life is easier. There's a gym in my basement and I use it regularly, at least every other day. My home on acreage provides ample opportunities for open-air exercise and I combine gardening and landscaping as often as possible. Love stuff that blooms, making Spring my favorite season.

I grew up in and around organized religion yet it no longer holds any draw. If compelled to classify my religious beliefs, they're a pastiche of Buddhist, Agnostic, Taoist, et al. I seek and have come to trust the truth of my own experience for guidance yet I am no one's judge and have a hands-off approach to people's strongly held belief systems. I am a free thinker who values intimacy and relationships over material things. I care nothing for being "right" all the time. Egotism is truly crude to behold.

Age is an attitude and people usually think I'm much younger than I am.

Cameras do not appreciate me. I am not, and never have been, photogenic. Those who meet me sound a common theme, to wit, "You look so much better in person than your pictures." C'est la vie.

While I hope I'll never lose a lifelong interest and curiosity in learning about art, literature, music, culture, history and economics, the past few years have largely been centered on trying to understand what happened to bring about the worldwide collapse in real estate and equity values in 2008 and thereafter, and working to reinvigorate my investments and put them back on a track toward long-term growth.

Communicating with others; taking responsibility; remembering your birthday; playing practical jokes; playing the stock market; winning at strip poker; finding the funny in situations; making people laugh. There is a profound beauty in laughter. I'm a good listener and storyteller, a loyal friend and an instinctive punster.

I still write and mail real letters and greeting cards with whimsical stamps affixed thereto when the post office has them.

My warmth, friendliness and laugh.

Literature: Candide; Waiting For Godot; Twelfth Night; The Tempest; The Taming of the Shrew; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; Robinson Crusoe; The short stories of Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving; British Romantic poetry and the poetry of William Butler Yeats; Darwin's On The Origin of Species; any of Moliere's plays; Bram Stoker's Dracula; Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays; Thoreau's Walden; anything from Eckhart Tolle; T. S. Eliot; The Importance of Being Earnest, for starters.

Movies: American Graffiti, The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Grease, A Beautiful Mind, Gone With The Wind. Generally speaking, I don't like many movies and do not understand what almost everybody seems to get from making moviegoing a regular pastime. On the other hand, I like most plays. Either way, I prefer comedy to tragedy.

Music: Good old Rock 'n Roll, Carolinas Beach Music, rhythm & blues. Country music makes me want to move to another country.

Shows: I don't watch much television outside of Bloomberg and CNBC (financial networks) although Pawn Stars has become an entertaining and even informative diversion and college football is a passion.

Food: Whatever you cook except beets or liver, although I make a pot of coffee every morning using freshly ground beans and distilled water.

Quotations would be one and since this is a Web dating site, how about something apropos from Frederick Perls: "I do my thing and you do yours. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it is beautiful. If not, it can't be helped." Translation: I do not want to change you, fix you or mold you into anything. I am NOT looking for my "other half," certainly not my "better half," but simply someone who complements the "I am" of who I am.

What else? Humor and jokes, high school and college football, peace and quiet inside and outside my home, sports cars.

A private, secluded dream home; behavioral economics; the meaning(s) in history; sports cars; investing; morality. I have come to a couple of fundamental understandings about human relationships, i.e., that no one is everything to anyone and that happiness is an insider job for which each of us must take responsibility. Boy/girl stuff works best when each recognizes that (s)he could live without the other but chooses not to.

Doing the average of what I did on the previous 51 Friday nights and occasionally reminiscing about being the non-celebrity judge on Friday Night Camel Races.

I yodel for fun and long for the day when the study and practice of phrenology will make a comeback.

You have intriguing stories to share because you have authored an interesting life. We can make all the lists we want but a genuine connection between two people comes down to the often-cited but elusive quality known as chemistry. To learn whether or not you have that magical connection with someone, you have to get out and meet them. Are you ready to meet?