October 10, 2011 | 1:55 pm

Free Love

Posted by Annie Korzen

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People pay big bucks to join dating services, but there are cheaper ways to make connections.  You might start with friends.  I was fixed up with Benni on a blind date.  We met in February and got married in April, because he had just arrived from Copenhagen and needed a green card. 

My friends warned me that I was marrying a stranger and after he got his papers I might never see him again.  I felt we were a good fit, and decided to risk it.  That was a zillion years ago, and we’re still going strong - although I do have moments when I think my friends were right: I married a stranger.  Maybe all spouses have those moments.

I know one woman who started attending AA meetings in Beverly Hills.  She had no addiction problems, but she figured there might be some interesting single men there.  I’m not sure I’d recommend that ploy, but there are plenty of classes, temples, political and charitable organizations, etc. where you can meet people who are not recovering crack heads.

My girl friend Sara noticed a cute guy on the subway who was reading a book she had just finished.  She started chatting with him, and they have now been married for twenty years.

Michael, a theatre director, volunteered to be a mentor to a disadvantaged kid.  At the training session, he met a young woman who was also being trained.  They, too, have now been married for twenty years.

My son, Jonathan, has a friend who joined the Peace Corps.  While he was working in Haiti, he hooked up with another volunteer and – you guessed it – the wedding took place a year later.

I’m not saying you have to join a do-good organization to meet your soulmate.  But I do think that if you’re someone with a lot of hobbies, interests, and passions, you just might come across Mr/Ms Right in the middle of your active life – without paying a fee!

If I were single in a big city, I’d get a puppy – and not just for companionship.  Dog-owners are a very social sub-culture.  I took a stroll with Sue and her Wheaton terrier, Daisy.  We couldn’t walk for two minutes without another canine-owner stopping to chit-chat.  Maybe someone should start a business leasing dogs to singles: call it PuppyPimp.com.  I see a film script here.