I see comedy potential in everything, from setbacks to success.

My headline is an attempt at humor. I actually hate my job in fast food. I thought it would be easier to find employment relevant to my degree in philosophy.

Seriously, I like to talk and read about art. After I see a movie or music performance that's got merit, I dissect the work with whoever watched it with me.

I'm interested in politics and economics. The current recession is probably the beginning of a new era when Americans will have to get used to less wealth and income.

On a happier note culture improves during hard economic times. The 1970s, a decade of high unemployment and high inflation, was the best decade of the 20th century for contemporary music, film, and comedy.

I'm a commercial litigator. I stuff my downtime with as much wild and crazy stuff as possible, like reading fiction and commentary on current events.

I have bad free style swimming technique but I am getting better. I had been trying to push my time on 5K runs below 22:00, but now the winter is here and I won't reach this goal until the spring. I run outside all winter long.

I ski in the winter and hike in the mountains in the summer. I like to travel for its own sake. My favorite cities are Berlin and Helsinki.

I recently realized that I could still enjoy whiskey and beer without my beloved cigarette habit, which I kicked about six months ago.

I'm looking for someone who is fun, intelligent, loyal, and enthusiastic about life.

Physical training, appreciating beauty, not complaining, playing armchair analyst for friends. Also fighting off wild animals in the woods. Hee hee.

Strangers mistake me for people they know. I like to think my well-proportioned face and physique sometimes make an impression.

Here is where the aesthete end of my personality goes hog wild.

Books: Lolita and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov; Filth and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh; The Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq; War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy; The Gay Science and Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche; Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; On Chesil Beach and The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan; The Stranger by Albert Camus. Right now I'm reading Hunter S. Thompson's major works.

Movies: 2001 and Clockwork Orange by Kubrick; Requiem for a Dream and the Fountain by Darren Aronofsky; Winter Sleepers and Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer; Taxi Driver by Scorsese; Trainspotting by Danny Boyle.

In contemporary music I like Radiohead, NIN, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Fugazi, and Royksopp. In classical music I like Beethoven, Ravel, Sibelius, and Schubert's 15th String Quartet.

Running shoes
Bianchi Volpe
Caffeine
Good books
The NYT delivered Monday through Friday
My stereo

I obsess about politics, philosophy, literature, and physical challenges.

Exercise early and then a few drinks. Good live music is icing on the cake.

I smoked 28,000 to 50,000 cigarettes before quitting.

But all the exercise kept my lungs clean and perty.

If I seem interesting.