Book lovers

I could have sworn that I'd posted about the distinctly eccentric brand of personal ad published in the London Review of Books before now, but I can't find any posts when I search my archives. So, let Sarah Lyall of the New York Times tell you about the British intelligentsia's personal ads:

Many of the ads reflect the writers' diverse intellectual interests.

A woman in the current issue, for instance, specifies that she is looking for a man "who doesn't name his genitals after German chancellors" (not even, the ad says, "Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst, however admirable the independence he gave to secretaries of state may have been.")

In an e-mail exchange also conducted on condition that her name not be used, the woman, a 38-year-old local government arts official with an interest in Bismarck, said she been inspired by a disastrous experience with a date who announced over the tiramisu that he called his private parts "Asquith," after the World War I prime minister.

"I'm fairly easygoing, but I specifically didn't want another dessert-spoiler," she said, explaining that the only thing she could think of worse than a wartime prime minister was a pre-Weimar German chancellor.

Mind, it's not all witty intellectual repartee:

Lots of people talk about their bad divorces. "My favorite Ben & Jerry's is Acid-Boiled Bones of Divorce Lawyer," says one ad.

[Via Blog of a Bookslut]