Yesterday, Alyssa Bereznak, an editor at Gizmodo.com, wrote about her date with Jon Finkel (above), a hedge fund manager who, as it turns out, is also the World Champion of Magic: The Gathering. Bereznak, who was turned off by Finkel’s unusual hobby, blasted the poor fellow for playing the game and for not disclosing his hobby on his online dating profile. However, if Alyssa hoped her post would elicit sympathy, or even laughs, she was terribly, terribly wrong. The young tech blogger is now the object of scorn, with readers around the world calling her every name in the book and questioning her professional integrity.

"I guess attempting to publicly shame a pretty awesome-sounding guy now constitutes tech journalism,” tweeted “Tekzilla’s” Veronica Belmont.

CBS’ News Chenda Ngak was also annoyed by Bereznak’s article.

“Just because he's not your flavor of freak, doesn't mean he deserves to be publicly humiliated to an online audience,” Ngak wrote.

“This sort of thing really pisses me off,” wrote an Examiner commenter named James. “It reminds me of high school bitchery that should have died off when we all turned 20. Karma is a bitch and I hope that it throws little miss ‘high and mighty’ into a pit of rabid gamers, where she will be picking out D4s and Magic cards out of orifaces for weeks to come!”

For his part, Jon Finkel (who inspired his own Magic playing card) is unfazed by the Gizmodo article, instead choosing to find humor in the situation.

“I think it's kind of funny. I mean really the article coulda been a lot worse,” he said in an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit.com.  “There are worse things than ‘He was tall and thin and I can’t believe he didn’t tell me about this game he used to be really good at.’”

What do you think about the Alyssa Bereznak/Jon Finkel drama? If anything it’s a good reminder that trashing others for having a “nerdy” hobby is shallow, petty, and terribly unappealing. Whether it’s hunting game or hunting ghosts, everyone has different hobbies and interests. The world would be a pretty boring place if everyone had the same passions so why discourage people from having untraditional interests?

Photo: Wizards.com

Tags: alyssa bereznak, gizmodo, jon finkel, magic: the gathering
Categories: Dating stories