Dating Social

Helen Fisher thinks dating should be less about romance and more about science. "If you are describing yourself on a dating site or in the personals," she writes in "Why Him? Why Her?

A Los Angeles television reporter is dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two years after his extramarital affair with another local newscaster led to the breakup of his 20-year marriage. KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter Lu Parker, a former Miss U.S.A., has been dating Villaraigosa since March, station officials confirmed Monday. On Sunday, while working as a weekend anchor, Parker announced a story about the likelihood of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.

2 Perched atop Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park, the observatory is an excellent, cheap getaway date that doesn't require much getting away. Go at night and the sparkling sea of lights makes for a view so spectacular that you'll almost forget about the stifling traffic you had to sit through to get there. There's plenty to do at Griffith Observatory to fill the dreaded silence that would be inescapable on a first-date dinner.

You may already know Alana Semuels from her holiday advice column on The Times' website. With Valentine's Day coming up, she debuts in print as etiquette maven Ask Alana, answering questions about romance and finance. Relationships are hard enough without the economy being in the crapper. Now that money is tight, annoying financial issues in your relationship or dating life have the potential to become huge craters that could run you off-road.

Swapping spit: The term takes on a more refined meaning at the new dating site ScientificMatch.com. A prerequisite for signing up -- in addition to having a bit of cash to spare -- involves swishing a cotton swab inside your cheek and mailing a juicy sample of skin cells and saliva. What do you get in return for your DNA-laden drool? A chance at genetic and olfactory harmony. ScientificMatch.

The modern dating scene has come to this: a text-messaging service that hits random female subscribers in Los Angeles with such messages as "Hello to all the beautyful ladys." Tech-savvy singles are now relying on cellphone-based services to find new dates and friends. The programs help users find strangers to exchange text messages with and even find, on a handset's digital map, nearby people looking to connect. Joshua Beaman, a 29-year-old sound engineer from Calistoga, Calif.

Gujarati parents of 25-year-old Brahman boy, NRI (nonresident Indian) living in the United States, working in management, seek suitable match with Brahman girl. Send photo and biodata. It wasn't how Dhaval Thaker, 27, expected to meet his wife. Born in India but raised in Artesia, Thaker assumed he would find his soul mate on his own. But two years ago, while Thaker was in India, his parents posted a matrimonial ad in a local newspaper.

Dairy farmers are putting singles' ads on milk cartons in the hopes of finding Mr. or Miss Right in the Welsh countryside. The effort coincides with St. Dwynwen's Day, which celebrates the Welsh patron saint of lovers. "My family thinks I'm nuts," said 30-year-old farmer Iwan Jones, who is on the cartons and hasn't had a date in a year. "My friends think it's hilarious." Three men and two women appear in the ads, which feature a photograph under the heading "Fancy a farmer?"

With many workers having an office valentine -- and even canoodling on the job -- some employers don't want to be liable if the romance fizzles. They are asking workers, mostly senior executives, to sign "love contracts" that shield employers from liability if intimacy later congeals into a sexual harassment lawsuit or some other discord.

For Ali and Noura, love blossomed in an Internet chat room. Both were young, educated, devout Sunni Muslims who shared a passion for Jim Carrey movies and Arabic love tunes. For months, they chatted online obsessively. As the friendship deepened, she shyly agreed to a webcam meeting. But their relationship was doomed from the start: He lives in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood of east Baghdad; she is across the Tigris River in the city's war-torn west.