Friday, June 3, 2011

The best place for ideas.

I'm addicted to craigslist. I don't even want any of the stuff posted on there, but I love looking at the low-resolution photos of couches, apartments, and beat-up lawn mowers.

But my favorite part, the part I check obsessively, is missed connections. It's the place where people post about their instantaneous crushes, the girl whose number they lost, or the man who walked by and whose face is stuck in their head:

"I was pretty sure that you winked at me. Maybe you have a weird eye twitch, or maybe it was a brightness issue. Maybe I imagined it."

Some people are wistful:

"i wonder some things, like...
why do we only hold hands when we're alone?"

and others are just raunchy.

Either way, these moments make for great scenes, characters, and writing ideas.

My favorite, ever, is this one:
"The Clunker" from Ithaca
Ron here, used car salesman. I sold you a d-mn old car that practically needed horses to pull it out of the lot. I've been up nights, thinking I am a criminal for selling a woman a car like that. Just what in tar-nation are you planning to do with it? I got more words than pleases most people, but I try not to mince em. I'd like to take you out to dinner. If you can make something of that soot-bellied clunker, I'd like to see what else you have up your sleeve.

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