Where Are Big Ten Fans Missing Their Connections?
A new study appearing in Psychology Today by researcher Dorothy Gambrell provides an interesting glimpse into the world of Craigslist "Missed Connections."
Among the findings, flirters in the SEC's footprint are most likely to see "the one that got away" at Walmart, though Atlanta's legendary traffic has led many Georgians to focus on their bumper-to-bumper game.
Ohio State fans hoping Urban Meyer brought the SEC with him to Columbus have to like seeing Walmart as the Buckeye State's top missed connection location. Among the other states in the Big Ten's footprint:
- Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota like to find love at the supermarket.
- Wisconsin, unsurprisingly, flirts and misses at bars.
- Illinois, owing to Chicago's sprawling public transit system, sees a lot of train lust.
- In Indiana, "at home" is the top location for missed connections. We're afraid to even speculate.
- The citizens of Michigan are all about the super store, which must mean Meijer has added a singles night. Note: "Super store" is also a fancy word for Walmart, because, of course it is.
- Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the home of Rutgers, are all about finding love at convenience stores (Wawa lust is the best kind of lust).
- Finally, the citizens of Maryland are missing their moment at parks more than anywhere else.
Perhaps the study's most interesting finding has to do with the site of missed connections by median age of poster:
- 20 years old: Ice cream shop
- 30 years old: Bar
- 40 years old: Strip club or adult bookstore
If you happen to be single and approaching 40, you have some weird times ahead of you.
Comments
I'm single and over forty, and it looks like I've been missing out!
Living near and working in D.C.....this is way off. No one I'm seeing is looking for love on the Metro.
Guess the analysis regarding 'getting off' was misconstrued.....
"Success - it's what you do with what you got" - Woody Hayes
Missed Connections in a city = drunk people making eyes on transit and then getting home and being like 'dawww, I gotta find that chick! TO THE INTERNET!'
Hence, Metro.
Taquitos.
At Home?! Seriously? I don't even wanna know. I mean if it were West Virginia I could hazard a guess.
“Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.” - Woody
That's funny and would up vote if I could. WV is a beautiful state and the Gauley River (Upper) is the best! That state has some folks with family trees that go straight up.
The upper galley during galley season is a blast. Probably my favorite way to tempt death. That being said, West Virginia is like being in a different country coming from Ohio. They're a strange breed.
Stop making me regret moving out west!!! Haven't been rafting in years. Nothing like the WV rivers on the planet.
the kids are playing their tail off, and the coaches are screwing it up! - JLS
I've heard about some good ones in Oregon if you're close to there.
Why have I been avoiding WalMart for all of these years? Apparently it's a great place to find love! Who wouldn't love someone like this?
I still haven't seen any non-homeless women wearing trash bags as dresses at a Walmart, though I've seen just about everything else including transvestites wearing thongs and people covered in cow manure. Those People of Walmart emails and links are about as true a thing as you'll ever find on the Internet, sadly. I weep for Ohio.
"Sherman ran an option play right through the south" - Greatest.Civil.War.Analogy.Ever
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!.......Is it still Halloween???
Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates. Football is no different, the guys down in the trenches win the games, not the coach.
Considering the small sample size of people that actually posts in craigslists missed connections section, it isn't exactly bursting with credibility. Looks like a fun way of trying to find some regional differences, but with only 0.005% of the actual missed connections being posted on craigslist the results are pretty worthless.
I think if I were a country music star this would be like market research.
"Ok folks, now for my next song I'll play your favorite and mine, 'I met her at a Colorado Gas Station' and 1, 2..."
“Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.” - Woody
honestly, this speaks to the lack of quality public space in our country - maryland missing connections in a park is one of the few bright spots. look at alabama and auburn. when each wins the natl title they put the trophy on a tour of wal marts around the state. it's not significantly any different than any other state, there's really no other gathering space for people to come to in their region of living. sad. in europe or a long list of other countries i bet the chart is entirely different.
apparently it's data based only on the last 100 posts, and considering the data is from jan/feb, it makes sense that most of these would be indoors. I think if the data was collected during the summer it would be somewhat different. Kind of interesting that Oklahoma was at the state fair though, I wonder if they jsut don't get very many posts, so they still have a ton from last summer
I think there's a huge difference between Walmart in MD/VA versus Walmart in OH and the Midwest. The Walmarts by me in NoVa and MD are disgusting and dirty and I try to avoid them if at all possible and looking for love there ain't happening. In OH, going to Wal mart is just what you do to pick up things and I think you're much more inclined to bump into a potential date.
I've actually started swinging by random Walmarts when out driving to test my theory and the difference in cleanliness and order between the Walmarts in Ravenna, Millersburg, New Philadelphia, Canton, OH versus Alexandria, VA and Bowie, MD are huge. There's a drinking game in here somewhere...
PRO TIP: just don't go to Walmart, anywhere, ever.
Taquitos.
Best. Advice. Ever.
The mullet game. Spend 30 minutes in Wal-Mart. 1 point for a mullet, 2 points for a glorious mullet. Add up your points and that's how many drinks you take.
rhode island's parking lots is pretty funny. when I'm at a parking lot, my only focus is getting to my car as fast as possible.
Damn you and that walmart wolverine site! Its like a firework factory fire - its awful but I just have to watch
The Wal Mart in SW VA is pretty bad. Apparently if you want to pick up hookers you go behind the store
"But I'm tryin' Ringo. I'm tryin', real hard, to be the shepherd"
And if yure a trucker, thats where you find the finest lot lizerds!
"Get him a body bag, Yeah!"
Gotta love Walmart, where else you going to see people like this....
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos/
Buckeye 4 Life!
But seriously, how is "bar" only listed on three states? So much hot action there...
NY is waaaaay off. New York is one of the three biggest states in USA, and only the City has a subway. #Fail Most people in NY meet drunkenly in bars and make the decision to continue said relationship the next morning...if you didnt sneak out already that is
If Denard Robinson isn't careful with spooning all that food into his mouth, he's going to end up lookin' like Whoopi Goldberg
To be fair, 85% of the people that live in the state of New York live in the NYC metro.
Stat-Man to the rescue
If Denard Robinson isn't careful with spooning all that food into his mouth, he's going to end up lookin' like Whoopi Goldberg
Seems rather obvious that they must mean the restaurant Subway in New York. Scarfing down a 12" chicken and back ranch melt on wheat while a cutie orders to go and bolts. Makes sense here...
I lived in NJ for 7 years and only saw Wawa's in areas of NJ around Philadelphia. I guess it's possible that they've migrated up north since then...
Real fans stay for Carmen.
Current NJ resident here. Wawas are everywhere - and they're spectacular.
so my state's leader is LA Fitness, lending credence to my theory that fitness is about #4 on the list of things people go there to do...
#1 look at themselves
#2 look at each other
#3 have an excuse to make me nauseous by wearing muscle shirts and nasty butt shorts to Target after "working out"
#4 fitness
the kids are playing their tail off, and the coaches are screwing it up! - JLS
the poor folks of Iowa certainly have to meet up somewhere to find love because it sure ain't gonna be at Kinnick Stadium since they aren't going to be competitive any time soon
Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates. Football is no different, the guys down in the trenches win the games, not the coach.
Hate to be a bit of a buzzkill on this, but can someone explain to me what the hell this study is actually saying? Missed connections? Almost finding love? How is that quantified? What does this have to do with Craigslist? Are they places where people are actively trying to meet people, or places where people see people that they'd want to meet but don't?
Totally lost.
still holding out for comments on how "this is too political" for 11W. don't let me down, crazies.
swing hard in case you hit it.
I can't imagine finding love in a Wal-Mart, but there are some hotties in Target.
Taco says the hotties are at Volkswagen dealerships.