There was a very attractive woman at a party who was wearing a low cut dress. I walked up and said, pointing at someone else, “That woman over there claims that you love to have men bury their face in your cleavage. It seems pretty unlikely to me, but I just wanted to see if there was any truth to it.” Her response: “Can I take you home with me?”
So that line has a demonstrated 100% success rate. Though it may only work on chesty women, I’m not sure.
I always thought Giraffe’s old sig line would be the best pickup.
A Giraffe’s tongue is 18 inches long and prehensile.
I’d hesitate to just say “Hi, I’m sj2”. It’s kinda pushy IMHO. Just say something open-ended. Like, let’s say, “Hey, there. How’s it goin?” (With no hint of JOEY at all, tyvm.)
Then you can get the blow off—Fine thanks and turns away. (now they know your name and you don’t know the other half of that query…)
—Not too shabby, how are you? (Then you can explain why you are there (oh, just getting my coffee fix, trying to find a book I heard about from the NYT…, Cleanin’ my undies…blah. )
A line I came up with that is a good way to start talking to an attractive woman:
Walk by her and stop and sniff the air, turn to her and nonchalantly ask, “Excuse me, do you smell like watermelon?” Then pause for a beat and say, “Oh, I don’t mean the fruit, I mean candy flavored like watermelon.” After she reacts you can introduce yourself
Most girls seem to be flattered by this and don’t seem weirded out if you can fake sincerity. I’ve started many good conversations at parties with this line. The best ever reaction was when a girl immediately said, “Oh, you mean hard candy.”
…
A friend of mine used to go the honest route–“Hi, I’m Scott … I’m fat and I’m drunk.”
I think that would have worked on me, actually. At least made me laugh.
I got a six month relationship out of “what are you drinking.”
Seriously, I am the furthest thing from Don Juan or Smoove B. or Doctor Love, but what’s always worked for me is to get women talking about themselves. Takes the pressure off.
While these are all amusing, not a single one would work on me. (Well, except maybe the “I’m fat and I’m drunk.” Kinda like that one.)
There was one that would have worked on me if it had been a pick-up line, but it wasn’t, in fact. It was a drive-by (walk-by) compliment that had me smiling for the rest of the day.
I was working Ren Faire. Now, I’m a cleavagey chick. 38DDD. Yes, really. When I’m in garb with full corset, no one, not even my own grandmother, notices anything about me other than the cleavage. Except this one guy, who came up to me, smiled shyly and said, “I know you’re going to think I’m weird or something, but I just have to tell you that you have the most stunningly beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. They make me think of sunshine sparkling on a blue pond.”
I. Am. Such. A. Dork.
Then he left, and I never saw him again. 
This seemed to work. At least until BM completely and totally ruined his chance by opening his mouth.
I once thought that “so, tell me your life story and don’t leave out a single detail,” was a good line but it backfired horribly.
It was a blind date with the most ratchet jaw, boring girl I ever met. On the way home I turned up the stereo as loud as it would go and played drums on the steering wheel to Walk Between the Raindrops. Didn’t even make a dent, she kept on talking about herself. When we got to her house she said “you know what I’m saying don’t you?”
I looked straight into her face and deadpanned, “no, I don’t have the slightest idea what you’ve been talking about for the last four hours.”
So she started over. I suspect she may have stopped when the tires of my car sprayed gravel on her. Honestagod true story except for the gravel.
The kind of thing that always got to me was a combination of a couple things:
A willingness to smile easily and often. A guy smiling, really smiling, makes him look ten times more handsome.
Look in my eyes. Especially those of you with blue/green/gray eyes* in the sunlight. (Sorry, brown-eyed people, but I have brown eyes and they’re just not that special to me). Don’t you know the sun shines into your eyes just so and makes my knees melt?
Worried & nervous are cute. Don’t stress over these things. I always liked casual, as well. The easy-going grin, the casual remark which makes me chuckle, these are good things.
And if all else fails, JUST TALK TO ME. Godsdamnit, I like chatting, if it’s about interesting things. (Please watch my visual cues. If my eyes are glazing over, realize it’s a bad thing.) I hate to sound trite, but just be yourself, unless you’re a jackass, then don’t come near me, because I’m pretty good at picking them out.
*And yes, there is nothing like a carefree smile from a blue-eyed guy. Nothing in the world.
At a bar, club, wedding reception, restaurant…
"Damn! Your beautiful" always works for me.
At a bar, club, wedding reception, restaurant…
“What the fuck are you looking at?” never works for me.
A very long time ago, when trying to pick up girls was within my range of normal behaviors, I was in town on the first day of spring. I was giving away Jonquils in celebration. That wasn’t the pick up thing, though. That was just what I was doing at the time. I dropped one of the bunches of flowers I was holding, and bent over to pick it up. I was standing right on the corner, very close to the building.
As I stood up, a young woman came around the corner, moving fast, head down, also very close to the building. I was standing up, and first saw her at a range of about eight inches, which rapidly closed to three inches, as we both tried to avoid collision. I fell down.
She was stunning. Absolutely fantastic looking, and at the same time, quite real, and unglamorously made up and dressed. I stood there in absolute silence for a very long time. She finally said, “Are you hurt?” I gave her a flower, and said, “No, I just wasn’t expecting you to be quite so beautiful.” She was sure it was a line. Actually, it wasn’t. She said, “I have to go.” I said “OK, now I’m hurt.” She laughed. Then she said, “No, really, I’m late, already.” “I’d wait.” I said. She laughed again. “Do you do this a lot?” she asked. I was so slow in responding she almost left. “I didn’t know I was doing something, other than giving out flowers.” She almost stayed. She hesitated for a long time. The she said, “I don’t think I believe you.” Then she did leave.
Maybe if I had been trying to pick her up I would have handled it differently.
“In my opinion, there’s nothing in this world, Beats a '52 Vincent, and a red headed girl.” ~ Richard Thompson ~
So, how you doin’?
:: blinks big blue eyes at Anaamika 
My very first crush, at age 12, went like this:
We had a “getting to know you” type of event in school. I went over to ask this boy something, he looked up at me - and nailed me to the floor with those eyes.
My very first fantasies were about him, too. :o
But, Sunspace, didn’t you have all that trouble with Tentacle Monster & some calamari some time ago? Not sure I want to be with someone who can’t differentiate the two! 
“Hi, my name is George, I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.” [/Seinfeld]
I can distinguish the two.
Unfortunately, sometimes that doesn’t make a lot of difference. The calamari often has a mind of its own, so to speak.
shudder
(bolding mine)
I’m a socially inept guy and I would love to follow your advice on just talking with a girl, but one of the problems I have is interpreting visual cues. I mean no one’s eyes really glaze over. I realize that it would be good to learn those cues, but I don’t what they are. You could tell them to me, but I don’t think they’d just sink in.
Actually, I am aware of visual cues. I can often get a sense that someone is getting bored (I think I’m maybe not as good at it as a lot of people, but I am not completely hopeless). What often happens is that when it looks like the person I am talking to is getting bored I get flustered. I have a hard time changing topics smoothly (I never know what to change it to).
Eve tried teling a girl the sh ewish she wasa sardine…so you can can her. :o 