From: "The Actor"
To: finy0535@gmail.com
Date: Jun 17, 2005 3:13 PM
Subject: $100 - $100 -- A Great Deal For The Right Guy

Hi,

I'm not twenty something, but I often go about 'chores' without a shirt. I'm a former actor/model, still in relatively good shape. I have a website so you can see for yourself.

I use to live on 35th between Park & Lexington, and like the Murray Hill area.

I've very handy, in all domestic things from cooking to cleaning.

However, I do smoke and that might be acceptable.

My website is *Note from Finy, I am deleting this just so he doesn't get a ton of emails or anything*. My number is XXX-XXX-XXXX

Thanks for considering me. It's a great ad. I'd very much like to meet you.

PS Sometimes older men know things young ones don't.

From: The Actor
To: finy apartment
Date: Jun 22, 2005 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: $100 - $100 -- A Great Deal For The Right Guy
Finy,

I thought it was too good to be true!
I'd love to have you ask me questions. I'm 61 and have a 25 year son at Harvard, and I raised him.
I have an affinity with the young and old, the beautiful and damned. I used to be an actor and I'm returning to Manhattan to pursue it. It's rare in people lives that they finally realize they can do what they want. So when I saw your ad, and having already lived in Murray Hill for 2 1/2 years back in the 70's (before you were born), I thought that if I just stayed a couple of months and got to know some people, preferably young, energetic and fun, then I could find a place of my own, and still remain friends.
By all means, pitch the idea to magazines. It's timely. I'd be more than glad to participate.
"The Actor" Tel XXX-XXX-XXXX
Look forward to meeting you someday.

From: "The Actor"
To: finy apartment
Date: Jun 24, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: $100 - $100 -- A Great Deal For The Right Guy
Finy,

I hope you make this into a salable piece and have fun too. As I said, it's a very good idea.

Live: Saratoga Springs, NY. Just sold my house and moving to Manhattan . Lived there many years ago in the Murray Hill area.
Living: I've been a headhunter in the Banking Industry for the last 19 years.

Living arragements: I live alone. My son went off to college 7 years ago, and I've been alone since. He was the reason I left Manhattan 20 years ago. I got custody of him when he was 5, and is now in graduate school at Harvard.

Appeal: Since Manhattan has changed so much, I thought that if I had a share or sublet for a couple of months, it would be a very easy way to figure out where in the city I wanted to locate. And your ad was incredibly cheap, $100 a month, and 'Chores'.

Cook and Clean: Yes. I was in the army for 3 years, and if you can't clean you never see town. As for cooking, I'm a very fine 'camp cook'. That is, simple, fresh, nutritious/healthy, and sometimes fancy with candles and little music, and some romance. I like a little romance at the end of the day, at nightfall, a dusk or early evening. When you get older, you no doubt will too. It's as important as good nutrition. And by romance, I don't mean sex. I mean conversation, memories, expectations, enjoying another person's company, whose company you enjoy. Then is everything romantic? It can be, but you have to be a poet to see everything that way.

Unattractive: Yes. Life is temporary. Then why not a live-in situation?

Assumptions: Yes. I hoped that the person would be wonderful, and I was right. I went this maverick named Finy. As to identity, I had a hunch that the woman was feeling a little risque in advertising for what she said she wanted, but something didn't fit. It was a though the person was doing it for the very first time, and holding back.

Told anyone: Of course. I certainly wouldn't have lied. As Mark Twain said, 'When you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.'

Comments: I wished it were true. I've put a bid in for an apartment rental on the upper west side, and I'm in limbo while they dither. To have had a place to move into in July would have been a great relief, and then I could go about scouting other places to live. And I don't get to meet this lovely, bold and daring Finy!

Good luck, and keep in touch. "The Actor"

Labels: the experiment