Goodbye Romeo Rose
Congrats, ladies: Worst Internet dater ever wants to leave Texas
That sound you're hearing is Texas women collectively sighing in relief. Someone identifying himself as Romeo Rose, the velour-rocking Austinite who just wants to find love — provided that love is white, thin and lives in Central Austin — posted to City-Data.com that he is considering a move to Las Vegas or Phoenix.
Noting that Austin is full of young "fem-nazis," Rose laments that he just can't find a conservative lady who will ride the bus with him and not have opinions about things. We're sure he will fare better in Las Vegas, a city known for conservative behavior.
Rose garnered national attention last year after his SleeplessinAustin.com website went viral; the domain has since been sold to an online dating company. His racist, misogynistic rants were enough to finally get a man who had spent years trolling Yelp, YouTube and various music forums his 15 minutes of fame.
Outlets such as Texas Monthly and Huffington Post picked up the story, and for a week in late September 2013, it seemed you couldn't turn to the interwebs without reading something about Rose (real name Larry Busby) and his quest to find everlasting love with someone who met his, um, strict criteria.
Thankfully, the spotlight soon faded for Rose, who returned to soliciting media outlets (including CultureMap) for coverage of his terribleness. But having covered the story back in September, it was hard to shake the thought, "Is there a woman out there who would date Romeo Rose?"
After user Shinoda28112 posted Rose's City-Data link to the Austin sub-Reddit late Sunday night, curiosity got the best of us. Well, Rose confirms the best possible scenario: He has not been with a woman since August, a full month before he momentarily turned into an Internet sensation.
Congratulations, ladies. You did it. Or, rather, you didn't do it. You should be proud.