“Until I see one that says, ‘Short girl in a dumpy sweater and lumberjack shoes,’ I’ll always assume they’re for someone else.” Wertz says she doesn't think she has ever been listed as a Missed Connection.
Updated 14:59, February the 12th, 2009
Making new Connections
‘I Saw You’ hits the mark for Craigslist Missed listings
PROFILE. Did you hit it off with the doctor who gave you a colonoscopy? Did you then post a Missed Connection inquiry on Craigslist? If so, then your story is being parodied in cartoon form in Julia Wertz’s new book “I Saw You” (Random House, $12.95), which hits shelves today.
An eclectic collection of comic strips based on these Missed Connections posts, they range in style and substance from simple sketches about furtive glances to detailed drawings that would make Stan Lee proud. Some strips are heartwarming, some heartbreaking, and a lot of them are just plain weird, but this pretty much reflects all that you can find on Craigslist itself.
Wertz says she got the idea for the book while job-hunting on the page when she fell victim to procrastination and ventured into the dubious Missed Connections realm. Surprisingly, though, the 26-year-old San Francisco Bay area native has never made a post of her own, and she doesn’t plan to. While some of us agonize over questions like, “Was I wearing a yellow sweater that day?” Wertz has never thought a post might be just for her.
“They’re usually pretty specific,” she says. “Until I see one that says, ‘Short girl in a dumpy sweater and lumberjack shoes,’ I’ll always assume they’re for someone else.”
Wertz says that while she did talk to one woman who met her husband through a Missed Connections post, she doesn’t subscribe to the concept of love at first sight, and in general she finds posts based on generalities like eye contact ridiculous. For a cartoonist, though, they provide plenty of material for comic strips, so she asked some of her art-inclined friends to turn posts into illustrations with their own unique twists. One comic by Kenny Keil, for example, is based on a post that read, “We exchanged smiles as you walked from your parking space,” and depicts a pair literally trading their smiles as they pass each other. On the other hand, there are also plenty of cartoons based on encounters with - ahem - ‘ladies of the night.’
So which posts are Wertz’s favorite?
“I like the contradictory ones that say something like, ‘Hey cute girl in the red car on Market, f— you for cutting me off, learn how to drive,’” she says.
The thing is, whether you’ve ever scoured the Missed Connections posts in search of your own description or not, “I Saw You” might just make you a little more careful about what you post the next time the babe in the green hat sends a wink your way. It might end up in "I Saw You II."
