Raising the bar

After my ten years in singles wards, I’ve narrowed down my dating requirements to three things: smart, fun, attractive. Everything else is a plus or minus, but ultimately inconsequential. After this weekend I feel like I need to have four dating requirements. Smart, fun, attractive, British accent.

I hate renting cars. It’s one of those many situations in adult life where I feel like I have no control. And these are maddening. You have all kinds of options when renting a car, but cheap is never an option. But as I rented a car this week I had one pleasant surprise: Sirius radio.

As always, I’d crafted a number of great playlists for my trip. After all, I knew I’d be in the car a lot over the 4 days driving all over Mesa, Scottsdale, Gilbert etc. But I only listened to those playlists on the airplane, as the satellite radio dominated my listening.

The comedy stations were fun. Especially since I’ve watched the entirety of Dr. Katz over the last few months (hey, it’s career research) and can recognize many more underground comedians because of it. I had a fun game on Doctor Radio where I’d try to figure out diagnoses before the physician on the radio (we usually tied.) I had another game where I’d listen to 80s radio and 90s radio and see which one I could listen to longer with a string of recognized hits. Throw in First Wave, Alternative Nation, Bluegrass Junction, a bunch of NPR stations and a pinch of Cosmo Radio (it was pretty bizarre) and I just never got around to my own iPod.

But what I listened to most was BBC Radio 1. Sure, at least half of it was American exports, but the other half was great. And those female British DJs, they had me entranced. The accent is hot on its own, but when combined with talking about indie or Britpop, it was almost too distracting to drive to. And when my GPS kicked in with her British accent over the top, well, I’m glad I didn’t hit any Arizonan pedestrians.