Albuquerque Journal Plays Matchmaker

Perhaps Albuquerque The Magazine can be forgiven for their ridiculous October feature, “The Second Annual Hot Singles of Albuquerque Issue,” because, while laughable (the expression, ’hot singles,' itself is laughable), the local periodical is a lifestyle magazine. It serves the purpose of indulging readers in this sort of entertainment. So silly questions like, “If your ideal partner were a New Mexican dish, what would she be and why?” and likewise, non sequitur answers such as, “A combination plate, classy in public and adventurous when we're alone” are within the realm of reasonable editorial content.

Conversely, Albuquerque Journal, which continues to masquerade as a news source, ran a cover article on Monday on a wealthy local businesswoman auctioning herself off on eBay. In the momentous “Mrs. Right, Dream Home Up for Bid,” we learn about Deborah Hale's woes as a middle-aged single who doesn't have time for the bar scene or internet dating. And in case you were wondering, the $600,000 Denver home that the 5'1”, 100-pound Hale comes with includes a tanning bed, hot tub and big-screen TV; but without a happy couple inside, it's just not complete. Sigh. I won't even begin to comment on their application of Mastercard's “priceless” slogan in the article's first sentence.

Aside from the fact that auctioning yourself off on eBay seems just a little bit desperate if not completely absurd, this story may have deserved a spot, snuck in somewhere between “Dear Abby” and the horoscopes, but the fact that the Journal deemed this to be front-page news is appalling. Furthermore, printing measurements and material assets on the cover of a newspaper verges on obscene. It's something that Albuquerque The Magazine had the decency not to do.

In a shameless attempt to entertain, versus inform, what the Journal fails to recognize is that dating is not news.