THE NEED FOR SPEED

Speed dating comes to Oakdale on Wednesday, January 9.

Not the soapy kind of speed dating, mind you; the kind that sees couples date, swear true love, wed, break up, then do it all over again in the span of a few months. But the kind of speed dating that Wikipedia describes as:

Men and women are rotated to meet each other over a series of short "dates", usually lasting from 3 to 8 minutes depending on the organization running the event. At the end of each interval, the organizer rings a bell or clinks a glass to signal the participants to move on to the next date. At the end of the event participants submit to the organizers a list of who they would like to provide their contact information to. If there is a match, contact information is forwarded to both parties.

On Wednesday, watch for Anne Marie Nest, Mark Dold and Anne L. Nathan as speed daters Audrey, Stan and Ginny, and for Chance Kelly as Joe, a man who really gets Katie's attention -- and Brad's.