Long Distance Love

This Seattle advice columnist is something and something and not afraid to something something something. No, not Savage - The other one. Dategirl.

Dategirl, aka Judy McGuire, did an interview with our parent site Gothamist yesterday which is weird only until you realize that she lives in New York. And then the fact that she lives in New York seems weird. Ok Seattlest reads Dategirl in the Seattle Weekly from time to time, but apparently not enough to know if she actually mentions this fact or not and, yeah, Dan Savage is published in about a million cities in which he doesn't actually live, but he's syndicated. Dategirl's column runs in the Seattle Weekly and that's it. Judy, c'mon, move to Seattle. If we're going to pay the rent we'd prefer it to be Belltown and not Manhattan prices.

Here's her blog and here's the interview.

You've been writing your Dategirl column for Seattle Weekly for six years. How'd you get started writing for a Seattle paper, and what are the most common types of problems readers ask you about?

A friend and I had gotten a development deal with MTV to do an animated series; it was about a sex & love advice columnist named Dategirl who lives in Williamsburg. I was so excited when we got the deal that I quit my job and took a temp gig as a fact-checker at Allure magazine until all the paperwork on my new position as a TV mogul was completed. MTV eventually declined, but meanwhile I’d met Richard Martin, an editor at the Seattle Weekly (now EIC at Complex Magazine). He knew all about the show and so when it fell through he suggested I just step into my animated character’s shoes and become their sex advice columnist. So I did.

Hands down, the most common question is: “How do I meet someone?” Both coasts, almost daily. That is followed quickly by “Why won’t my boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife have sex with me?” Which perfectly illustrates that old chestnut, “be careful what you wish for.”