Photo: Courtesy of Apple. Two years ago, when this writer was vacationing in the South of France, a stranger offered a forkful of cuttlefish pasta, right off her plate. The first thought: "Black pasta?! Now I've seen everything!" before realizing that it just wasn't something we wanted to try. So, we decided to ask her for contact deets, with the hopes of turning this odd encounter into something romantic. But, before the pocketbook could come out of the fanny pack, the stranger had vanished.
Unfortunately this happened two years ago, and not today. Now, we could have used CiaoYou, a new app that allows users to connect with strangers they may have had a brief, fleeting encounter with, or just seen walking down the street. Think Craigslist's missed connections feature, but for your smartphone. The app is free to download, but charges users to send messages which can only be done after a connection is made. So, although our European encounter was ages ago, we've already downloaded the app and inputted the necessary information: "We met on The French Riviera. You offered some of your black pasta, I rejected you, and you ran away. Call me, bye."