The Big Mack

Like letter-writing, conversation and romance, the art of flirting is slowly dying. With a goal-oriented society that expect results, flirting has become a mode of attack. In essence, flirting is simply putting you best stiletto forward and spilling out the charm. An exhilarating exercise of witty banter, well-placed pats on the chest, body language and for women, using their hair as lures. When one flirts one must not expect anything really. Flirting per se has no strings attached. It can truly get you places, raises and aces. It can also get you into trouble. Flirting is an exercise of power after all. Using the right mix of pheromones, stock knowledge and sharp jokes, a good flirt is only good when his or her intentions are. Otherwise it's Delilah.

Charm, after all, is the most cunning weapon. It works stealthily. Like hypnosis, you enter intrigued but skeptical, and if the talk is good, one leaves the room not knowing what hit him. Children make the best flirts. See how they coyly peek from the butts of their parents and bat their kewpie doll eyes or doefully stare up as they grab your hand and proceed to get their way. If adults were equally as endearing, the world would be an overpopulated and a very dangerous place.

Flirting is an activity that the libido rich and bored revel in. Pros flirt for practice. An obstacle course of stares and whispers on unwitting (or alternately annoyed) strangers and friends who you have no intention on messing up the sheets with. When a prime catch comes a true pro does the verbal tango with unaffected ease.

Being the girl next door klutz, macking becomes me. Of course, my method is not the most sophisticated one. I envy the sharp women with their red lip gloss wielding their cigarettes in the most urbane manner. They move and talk as if the world was in slow motion and that they are the only things worth paying attention to. It is a display of confidence and self -possession. Two of the most compelling traits a person could ever have. I asked my friend Marce, a serial macker, what it takes to make a woman exude mystery. "Just make things up," he replied.

I have always believed that who you are is the engineer of your flirting style. How a person flirts tell a lot about them. A person who uses pick-up lines that are obviously lifted from books or movies are sad, unless it is used for humorous purposes. Flirts that rely on coupons (c’mons using exotic vacations, cars, pedigree boasting, etc.) are equally veto material. The ones who bite to the materialistic bait are scandale as well. The best ones are those who don't turn on the charm but simply have it.

So wallflowers take heed. In the words of my friend Marcel, you have to play to win.