This site is starting to outlive its usefulness, but I'll give it a few more tries in the hopes that I'll meet an awesome girlfriendy-type person and we can deactivate our profiles forever. Generally, I've had pretty decent success on here, and even though I'm lukewarm in my enthusiasm for the NYC dating scene, I do enjoy meeting new people.

Hopefully there's a good listener out there who's looking for a good listener and isn't scared off by such maturity-stunting interests as baseball and punk rock music. I like dark beer and indie music/film. I surround myself with great friends, whom I corral for regular dinner parties at my house or outdoor movies in my backyard. I ride my bike a lot - riding around the city makes me feel like I'm inside a video game (Frogger, usually).

I generally don't do well dating people with intense personalities or who are overly argumentative. At the same time, I like people who have strong opinions, but aren't too heavy-handed about debating them. I like to make people laugh and I think I'm pretty good at it, and I try to cleverly make crude jokes without using directly offensive language. I like to go on zany first dates; over the years I've gotten dressed up in formalwear to go bowling, sneaked wine onto Governors Island to ride bikes /have a picnic, and gone to play arcade games. Meeting up to sit at a table somewhere is kind of boring - at least if that's the only thing we do for the whole time. I scheme things like surprises to spring on people and creative gifts to give.

I don't ooze machismo: I don't crush beer cans on my head and I probably couldn't kick anyone's ass who insulted your honor if we were out on a date. (But I'd probably say something that would make you laugh and piss him off enough to the point that he'd come after me and forget about you.) This doesn't mean I'm spineless, because I can be pretty feisty when the situation calls for it and being a NYC public school teacher means I have a pretty sharp tongue. I've broken up my share of fights (girls are vicious!).

One of my students once asked, "Mista, do you get mad girls?" Before I could even answer, another kid said, "You have no idea what he does when he goes home and the sweater vest comes off..."

Yes, I do wear sweater vests to work in the winter.

I used to teach high school history to inner-city kids in Queens, mostly from the projects and I've been called "gangsta" by kids who are actually gangsters. I went into teaching to save the world, which has taken on a different meaning from the doe-eyed idealism I used to have, but I do my best and have some pretty crazy stories to tell as a result. These days, I teach at a highly competitive NYC public performing arts high school. Maybe I've lost all street cred now, but I still get the "Yo Mista!" on the street every so often from kids in the neighborhood.

Cheering you up, sending you an obscure article from an online magazine or website that you'd love reading, cooking dinner, foreign accents, having a good time out on a budget, fighting parking tickets, throwing killer pot-luck dinner parties, buying a pair of tickets to see a concert without thinking through who's coming with me.

Giving compliments. (Still working on properly receiving them.)

that I look like someone they know/knew/hate. Most recently, I was stopped to ask if I was Van. Previously I've been confused for Chris and Arthur. Other times, people just ask if we've met before. One of those faces, I suppose.

Of late: "Are you the guy from 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?'"

Books: Of Mice And Men, The Fixer, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Please Kill Me, Lies My Teacher Told Me, The Plot Against America, Midnight Express, "The Good War, " Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, The Pity of War, PEACEMAKERS, The Dark Continent, Maus, A People's History Of The United States.

Movies: Before Sunrise (and Before Sunset), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pulp Fiction, Dr. Strangelove, The Karate Kid, 24-Hour Party People, Clerks, The Good Thief, The Quiet American, The City of Lost Children, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Shallow Grave, Glory, Paper Clips, The Pianist, Tommy Boy, An Education

Shows: The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, The Pirates of Penzance, Anything Goes. Wait, you meant TV? I ditched cable and the only show I really watch is Breaking Bad (if you have AMC and you're not busy on Sunday nights...) I also listen to all the How Stuff Works podcasts, Car Talk, This American Life, The Bowery Boys ("Hey....").

Music: Wilco/Golden Smog/Uncle Tupelo (any Tweedy project band), Social Distortion, Stiff Little Fingers, Longwave, Pet Shop Boys, Dropkick Murphys, The Pogues, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Sonic Youth, Phil Ochs, Woodie Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Dinosaur Jr., U2, Weezer, The Smiths/Morrissey, Sigur Ros, Billy Bragg, Tegan & Sara, Rancid, Suicide Machines, Mojo Nixon, Op Ivy, The Replacements, Chuck Berry, Diesel Boy, The Beatles, Jets to Brazil, Buddy Holly, Leadbelly, Sam Cooke, Connie Francis, Psychadelic Furs, New Order, The Jam, The Flaming Lips, Iron and Wine, Beck, Neutral Milk Hotel, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Bryan Adams (unironically).

Food: Cheeseburgers are my comfort food, Clif Bars are my workout food, Vietnamese is my indulgent food, French Toast is my brunch food, and Potato Latkes are my ethnic food.

1) My Zune (yeah, I joined the social)
2) My bike
3) The interwebs
4) My Metrocard
5) Corrective eyewear
6) The NY Mets (sad, I know)

"How much longer can I stay in bed and still make it to teach my first class on time?"

drinking Manischewitz, goin' out to terrorize goyim.

Sometimes I like to be the little spoon.

The NY Times once called me a hipster: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/next-stop-on-the-w-train-history/

I'm not nearly as vanilla as this profile might present me as. I'm quite puckish and can tell rip-roaring filthy jokes with the best of 'em.

any of the following apply to you:

*You'll go to the prom with me.
*You're affectionate. You've got a big heart. You're willing to put your guard down just a bit to see if we've got something good going. You don't act like you're too cool for school.
*You ride a bike and you'll geek out about bikes with me.
*You're a grammarian. You like to master the craft of the English language. You write with style and wit. You miss the days of handwritten letters and put pen to paper sometimes.
*You're feminine, but not overly girly. You look smashing when you go for the natural look without makeup.
*You use emoticons and exclamation points sparingly. Ditto for typing out "LOL."
*You'll spend an entire Sunday in bed with me while we put on our favorite playlist of obscure music.
*You plan on staying in the NYC area for, oh, at least the next few decades.
*If you message me and your profile name has "in the city" somewhere in there, hopefully it's a reference to the songs by either The Jam or Joe Walsh rather than...you know...

*You're looking for a reason to delete your profile.

Yes my profile is long. Thanks for stopping by!