New website to help you find "the one that got away"

Via a forwarded e-mail from my friend Yael, here is a new site called Almost Met Jew, where you can find

a) the "one that got away" - you know, the cute girl who was sitting across from you on the 9 train, lookin' good in her Barnard sweatshirt and long jean skirt, but you didn't get up the nerve to talk to her, and then she got off at 59th street and you are still thinking about her three days later . . . or whatever

b) the long lost friend, members of your extended family tree, or whatever

I am totally going to use this to try to find the person who was my best friend in elementary school, until she moved to Texas and disappeared from my radar. I'm so curious to know what has become of her. I've tried Googling, superpages, calling people whose names sound like what I think was her father's name, etc, but no luck so far.

God, how romantic do you think it would be to read a "one that got away" posting and realize they are talking about you? That would make my day, totally.

Of course, the whole thing flies in the face of the "shidduch" system -- after all, the site is based on the idea that people will want to pursue relationships on the basis of what the other person looked like from afar (oh! the superficiality! horrors!) but given the trouble so many people are having, meeting their "basherts," it can't hurt to bring a little romance back into "the system" (or, rather, utter lack thereof).

It will be interesting to see, over time, how many people get responses from their "almost met" dreamboats, and of those who get responses, how many end up in long-term relationships. It seems to me that a lot of people, women especially, might be a bit off-put by the idea of responding to some anonymous guy who could, after all, be an axe murderer. And, very often the "one that got away" turns out to be a jerk, or a flake, or just a little bit strange.

But, you never know. The site offers a way to find out for sure, so that you don't spend the rest of your life kicking yourself for not getting someone's phone number when you had the chance.