When Andrew told me he’d read my essay, he had no way of knowing what it meant to me. He didn’t even say it outright, come to think of it, only confessed to Googling me. It was the quietness of his admission that was so jarringly lovely.

“Everybody Googles everybody,” he said with a sheepish smile, and suddenly we shared a secret. He was right, of course — everybody Googles everybody, usually to find out if a potential mate is married or a serial killer or a Republican — but sometimes there are other things to be found. I know because I am overwhelmingly Google-able.

In 2009 I’d come out, [...]

We were nestled in the relationship sweet spot: lying on separate sofas watching Gwyneth Paltrow deliver her Oscar acceptance speech for Shakespeare in Love. Then Amy muted the television and cleared her throat. The words came off her tongue too cleanly to be natural, making me suspect that her cats had heard them a few times before I did.

“What we have here might be as good as it gets, but I need to find out if things can be better with someone else. I’m going to move out, but not for a month because I need to save money. I’m going to stay here until then.”

It was a [...]

1. I’ve been good friends with this dude for five years. I don’t want to be overly maternal or meddling, except: about five weeks ago, he was feeling mopey and went to a strip club after he got off work. He "struck up" a conversation with a young lady who was working there, and they discovered that they have a "lot in common!" Here is the sum of information he’s given me about her:

1) she became a stripper to avoid the government lien against her wages; 2) she has a government lien against her wages because she 3) dropped out of school and owes several thousand in student loans; [...]

What Love Looks Like is a newish Tumblr of varyingly poignant, science-free charts by Brooklyn-based artist Louise Ma. The death ones are fun (see above), but the "Let Me Show You" set is a little more upbeat. Or is it?

Elsewhere in love and the internet: the New York Times' bittersweet "Two Decades of Vows" slideshow.

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"From the minds that brought you Yo Is This Racist" (yes, usually) comes "Yo Should I Dump This Asshole" (ditto).

Some scientists looked at all the studies and all the statistics and all the graphs about online dating in order to publish a super-long article in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest (what a sweet journal, thank you). In short:

– If you're a homebody, parent, new in town, or a weirdo, online dating will help you meet more single people than you normally would. If you are a "normal," you'll meet the same number of singles just going about your daily biz offline.

– Meet an online prospect in real life and don't agonize over their stupid profiles. No, this doesn't mean you have to go [...]