Sorry I’ve been away. Thank you for sticking around, checking back with me, reminding me to publish held comments, etc. I had been having some technical problems, but most of all found myself in a crunch for time – I kept writing half-posts and then discarding them. But now I’m back, hoping to provide some regular dating news and commentary from the crazy place where Jews and dating (sometimes) meet.

Up after the jump, Megan Fox, blind dating that’s really blind, religious transparency, and words to the brokenhearted.

Megan: Like a Fox? This is not a SEO ploy, I swear, but our first story is about Megan Fox. Until about a month ago, I had no idea who Megan Fox was, which means that I’m not male. But as soon as I started seeing pictures of her, I became a mixture of intrigued and appalled: Was she a non-thinking man’s Angelina Jolie? Had she been in anything I’d seen? Why did she seem like she was all artifice, all external sexiness with no soul? Why was she SOOO skinny (EW noted that one photo made her look like she was “an alien and/or rib-deprived”)? Why should I like her?

Leave it to Gawker/Defamer to provide the first sound logical argument about why I – and all of us ladies – should like Megan Fox – because she’s honest about being eye candy and doesn’t try to pretend to have depth:

[…] she makes no bones (heh) about it! She has repeatedly stated that her job is to be attractive. Unlike, say Scarlett Johansson who peddles sex the same way Fox does but tries to gussy it up with Tom Waits cover albums and erudite interviews. Isn’t that infinitely more annoying? Fox’s honesty is way more refreshing.

I’m not sure I can argue with that. Plus, kudos on the “bones” dig.

Blind Religious Jews Permitted to Feel Dates. Their faces, kids…according to Ynet,  Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, head of the Petah Tikva Hesder Yeshiva, declared it permissible for a blind man to “feel” his date if he intends to marry her:

“This is the way a blind man gets to know his partner,” the rabbi said in response to a halachic question he was asked. “It may even be correct to say that he is required to touch her.”[…] On the site he explains that despite a religious ruling that forbids men from looking at women because of their beauty, Torah sages required all men to see their intended before marriage. He says that this is true regarding the blind as well, but because the only way they can ‘see’ their date is by feeling her they are permitted to do so.

“Feeling her face is void of sexual significance; it’s the blind man’s way of seeing,” the rabbi writes. “He is also subject to the obligation to build a loving home, and this is an inseparable part of how he does this […]; A blind man cares about many things, even if he cannot see them,” he explains.

I’m glad that there are considerations given to the blind singles out there. But what I’ve also learned is that the blind can be just as superficial as the sighted.

Religious Observance: Tell-All, or Reveal-Nothing?: Over at Beliefnet, Kingdom of Priests’ David Klinghoffer recounts a tale of a setup he was asked to arrange, and what he perceives to have been his blunder: he revealed that the woman he had in mind was Sabbath-observant. He opined that religious observance should be something you keep secret for a while.  Some commenters disagree, stating that religious observance is something so important and identity-defining that it should be discussed immediately so no one wastes his or her time. What are your thoughts?

Words to the Brokenhearted: Just as I was looking for a closing item here, a Tweet came in from Jewminicana Aliza Hausman: “How do u tell someone they have to kiss a lot of frogs before they find the one when their heart is broken? You don’t.” Do you agree? What can ever cure a broken heart? Your advice and support for those disappointed by relationships that take unexpected turns is always welcome here.