People often comment that I am very "intense" and "enthusiastic"; they also say that I am funny.

I am a native of the Philadelphia suburbs, and I received my Ph.D. from Penn. I have also lived in London, Florida, Connecticut, Idaho, and Massachusetts (the Boston area). Now I live in Cleveland Heights. I am a lifelong fan of the Phillies, although I am well disposed toward the Indians.

I’m a college professor. (If you are one of my students and you are looking at profiles on OKCupid, you should get back to your schoolwork!)

My politics are conventional left-liberal, and I like to be around people who share that orientation on political and social issues. I don't feel like being obliged to explain from scratch why decent public education or decent health care is a fundamental right, or to argue why heteronormativity is bad. I am a religious skeptic.

I like to mix "work" and "pleasure," and I've never understood the appeal of "going on vacation." My ideal day might begin with jogging; then I would work for several hours on my research; then finish up the day by getting together with someone for drinks.

I try to keep in shape, running and working out.

People comment on how fluently I speak, or how amusing I am.

(P.S. Someone misunderstood this statement to imply that I am not a native speaker of English. I did not write that I "speak English fluently," or that I am "fluent in English." The point is that my sentences flow well.)

People who know my age comment on how young I look. People who do not know just assume I am the age I appear to be. This has obvious advantages, although it has some disadvantages, mostly in my professional life (reaching a certain age is necessary for reaching a certain level of achievement, and if you don't appear to have reached that age . . .).

Novels: Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*, Ford’s *The Good Soldier*, Nabokov’s *Lolita*, Ishiguro’s *The Remains of the Day*.

A lot of my non-professional reading consists of things I can read in tiny portions. I'm more likely to dip into a book on architecture or a biography of Winston Churchill than commit myself to reading a long novel. I'm saving Proust for my retirement.

Movies: *The Seven Samurai*, *The Bridge on the River Kwai*, *Vertigo*, *The Graduate*, *Blue Velvet*, several Michelangelo Antonioni films, most Woody Allen films, all Stanley Kubrick films. My favorite films of the past fifteen years would probably be *Memento*, *Before Sunrise* and *Before Sunset*, and *Brokeback Mountain*. Movies someone might be *surprised* to know I like? Maybe *The Exorcist*, which illustrates how superb acting and direction can transform and elevate schlock.

Music: Romantic opera (particularly Wagner and Strauss), the Beatles, classic rock, some jazz. I have recently been discovered to be a late-onset Deadhead.

Unfortunately, I’m a movie fan who doesn’t go to movies much anymore; I am an opera fan who only goes to an opera when in London (the place where I stay is two tube stops from Covent Garden).

My favorite painting, at least at this moment, is Joseph Wright of Derby's "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" (it serves as the desktop image on my laptop).

Should I skip over the lower steps in Maslow's hierarchy and get right to the interesting stuff?

My laptop, my family and the family cats, my longtime friends, old books, my car. OK, not that interesting.

Necessary truths a posteriori.

Why the guy sitting across from me in this coffeeshop has yet to perceive (after at least four years) that his dancing-in-place weirds out the people sitting near him.

(I am big on people-watching, and would like someone to do it with.)

Why people who drive SUVs or "baby SUVs" (or whatever they are called) don't notice that their elevated headlights shine right into the passenger compartment of any normal-size car that is unfortunate enough to be in front of them, and make it harder for that car's driver to see the road ahead?

Working on academic things (research, teaching) while sitting at the local Starbucks, and then heading out to a bar.

You are a single woman, 26-42, who thinks that I sound intriguing. I tend to be attracted to women who are nerdy, although this is not an absolute requirement.