The holidays turn our thoughts to love and family. But the "m4m" section of Craigslist, usually a venue for anonymous hookups, is a strange place to begin one's soulmate quest. That didn't stop one reporter!

Chandler Burr, to be precise, the avidly self-promotional, ethically challenged first-ever perfume critic for the New York Times. (Commenter fractal_elves identified him.)

In his Craigslist post, he says he's a well-traveled book author, and yet his ad is ridden with conversational clichés ("Life's too short," "what you see what you get," "so there you go," "I'm in this for real"). But that makes the whole thing all the more awkwardly sweet: Even a professional writer struggles with marketing himself to potential mates in a personal ad. Now that Burr has been ID'd, can someone set him up with a date? He sounds like he could use one.

I'm a professional guy, 44, journalist, 6'2" 185 and physically your basic European-American. I'm masculine, and only interested in other masculine, solid, serious guys. I'm pretty direct—you can talk to me about anything, pretty much any time, no scheduling conversations, no judging the right moments. Life's too short. I'm what you see you get, and that's what I'm looking for in the other guy. I realize that this part of Craig’s List is generally about sex, but strangely enough I've had some great luck meeting serious guys here, so there you go.

I'd like to have kids, probably by adoption— there are so many kids out there who need parents—and I wouldn't mind becoming a step-dad.

I'm educated, masters in international economics and Asian political economy. I'm a journalist at a NY paper and a book author. I've traveled a lot— I think it's about 60 countries by now; I have my original passport somewhere with all the old stamps in it starting from when I was 17, but it's weird, you keep stuff like that and then you don't look at it, or at least I don't.

I'm looking for a solid guy who can handle the stuff that comes up in life, hold his own, and hang in for the long haul. I'm willing to do the work. I'm pretty optimistic. I've had some bad experiences dating like all of us, and they've made me a little wary, but maybe that's a good thing, who knows. I'm definitely not into casual flings, and games I'll cut off immediately. I think I know what I want, but at the same time I've been surprised, so I'm open to whatever. I'm in this for real.