Bona fides

I want proper introductions. In an ideal world I would marry someone I either already know or someone introduced to me by a friend. I really think my social life should run along Austenian lines.

In fact, I not only want introductions, I want to be thrown together with someone until I wind up loving, loathing or verifying my own indifference to them. To quote Luke Danes, "That's the romantic way to do this, d___ it!"

But that isn't what I've got, and I find that I've no idea how much leeway to give to social relationships when there has been no proper introduction, and therein lies perhaps my biggest Match.com/dating issue. What does one do without the fact of 'Belle introduced me to Mr. Doe' which leads to 'well, if Belle likes him, there must be something there' which leads to sufficient patience to not throw the baby out with the 'oh my lord, Mr. Doe doesn't read fiction - ever' bathwater. (And, by the same token, how do people manage not to throw me out over any number of teensy little quirks that might reasonably cause a 'Danger, Will Robinson, Danger' reaction, unless I've got bona fides?)

Emily Post, where are you when I need you!