It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Meredith Fineman carries her parents journalistic tradition into new media. Her father, Howard, is leading political light for Newsweek and NBC News; her mother, Amy Nathan, now at the FCC, got her start reporting for the Washington Post.
Fifty First (J) Dates is the 23-year old’s way to meet people after returning to her hometown of Washington, D.C. after working abroad in Buenos Aires.
“At first I didn’t tell them about it,” Fineman said. “They found out from other people about ‘how fabulous it was.'” The point, Fineman assures, is to be fun and humorous about dating in D.C. instead of a return to Washingtonienne.
Through the evolution of online dating into the mutual awkwardness of a first-meeting, Meredith Fineman brings out a creative and fun take into the world of dating in D.C., specifically through J-Date.
Meredith Fineman
“I never signed up with the intent of actually writing about it,” Fineman said. Instead the quirks and flirations of “let’s atone for our sins together,” as she also told the Washington Post. But these were clearly too good to pass up and became collected under her new blog, which also gets cross-posted on The Huffington Post.
The blog’s inspiration doesn’t come from looking for potential content, but “the funny little moments on the sites: building my profile and that sort of thing.” Whether it’s slyly asking if we’re all Russian Spies in the age of Foursquare check-ins, preparing for your first J-Date or going over the actual date itself (this date: The Big Shot.)
There’s still a known elephant (sometimes literal) in the various bars and restaurants of Washinton: people come here for political gain and can’t get their head out of the game, even on a date, which Fineman has found. ” I love politics as an interest,” she said. “And I feel like it’s very hard, I agree, without an agenda and concerned about their ego and agenda.”
Still, Fineman doesn’t ignore the possibility of social media and meeting people in D.C. A long-term goal for the site is to further expand into dating culture and showing where to go in the District, sharing tips and as simple as showing where to go based on Foursquare and Twitter.
“I have this funny blog and a pseudo-persona that is me. I think it’s fun to be entertaining people with stories about your life, but you have to know where to draw the line.”
You can submit your own J-Date stories and follow the site on Twitter.
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