Over in the Happily Married Thread, Chef Troy mentioned:
Obviously this didn’t hurt the poster’s chances before becoming Happily Married, and probably comes in quite handy after marriage. 
I thought I was the only one who’d experienced this condition. MY question is, is it common? And can it be cured?
I think I might be afflicted with nattwsifwm syndrome as well.
nattwsifwm=Not Able To Tell When Someone Is Flirting With Me
It’s happened with me. Not just flirting, but actual come-ons. I looked back on some situations, then kicked myself for not seeing the obvious. 
Of course, I’m happily married now, so it doesn’t matter to me anymore.
I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright
I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush
Hate to post a “me too”, but me too. First job out of college, one of the SFCs on the base where I was a secretary chatted me up for ages before I figured out what was going on…
I continue to be very dense about it to this day, which hasn’t really helped on the social scene. Men (and women as applicable) have to be rather blunt with me, as I don’t get the hint.
I’m also very bad at flirting - I think if you can recognize it, then you can practice doing the same thing back, but since I can’t I may be hopeless.
Right there with ya homies.
High school. Just me and a very attractive girl in a room. I am lying stomach down on the couch, she is lying on top of me. She says “Is it hot in here for you too.” My reply “You’re hot. Let me go get the air-conditioner.”
This was soon followed by the gigantic hand of fate reaching down from the heavens to smack me around.
I have the body of a taut, young Swedish boy.
Oh yeah, me too. It has to be pretty blatant for me to realize I’m being flirted with. I think part of it, at least in my case, is that I’m not the sort that gets flirted with often. Thus, I’m inexperienced in recognizing it.
In fact, I can remember being in a department store with a female friend (who I really wanted to get involved with, but that’s all past…) and the girl working the register was really, really flirting hard with me. Still, as I left, I had to confirm with my friend: “Am I crazy, or was she flirting with me?” She responded, “YES! It was disgusting!”
So, there ya go. Flirtation has to be ‘disgusting’ before I even realize it’s happening.
Men need a neon sign when dealing with me. I’m hopelessly dense when it comes to that. So, use a neon sign and flash it a couple of times. I should get it, then. 
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge…others just gargle.
I’m a math major. 'Nuff said.
– Sylence
I don’t have an evil side. Just a really, really apathetic one.
I used to be terrible at flirting or detecting flirtation…then I went in the military. That kind of solved that problem. 
I too am afflicted with the inability to tell when people are flirting/interested with/in me.
Wouldn’t it be nice if people could get over the whole subtle hints thing and just tell people how they felt?
sigh, oh well, this is why I prefer dogs to people…
(not that way, don’t be disgusting.)
i’m normally pretty good at detecting when someone is flirting, but i did have a slight lapse about a year ago.
someone i worked with, (one of my managers actually) used to flirt with me all the time but i always thought he was just being nice. then he approached me one night after work and started talking about how much he loves my personality etc. i was totally taken by surprise. so was everyone else… that i didn’t pick up on it.
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
Forget how warm it is – if someone’s lying on top of you, you might take that as a sign…
I have the opposite problem. If some one is being nice to me, I secretly HOPE that it’s flirting, and am usally dissapointed.
::sigh::
The odds that the bread will fall butter side down are directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
I’m hopeless at telling if someone is flirting, making me assume that no one is interested. I was at my vet’s the other day (and I’ve been trying to figure out if he’s gay or straight, because I have semi-crushies) and we’re talking about living alone, and what a pain it is to cook for one, yadda yadda. Then he asks me if I’ve ever eaten at a local chinese restaurant. I promptly told him the last time I’d eaten there, I saw a roach on the salad bar (which is why it was the last time I ate there!). D’uh!! I didn’t realize until the drive home that maybe he was going somewhere with that line of questioning. I’m still kicking myself. But I think my dogs will have to go in for shots soon…
StG
I’m a terrible flirt, and usually pick up on the signals pretty well <smile>
If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully–as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.
I’m a terrible flirt, and usually pick up on the signals pretty well <smile>
If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully–as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.
Damnit! Months without a double post… and now 2 in one day!
If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully–as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.
Oh wow…I can’t believe something I said became grist for a whole thread…
(image of Chef as Charlie Brown with mouth all wiggly and hands clasped in front of breastbone)
The only reason my flirt-recognition handicap didn’t hinder Mrs. Chef’s chances of bagging me is that we met as kids and just grew into a couple. If she’d had to snare me with flirtation when we were in college, we never would have gotten together, because she was kind of shy in those days.
So now I must share a story of flirtation that was SO flagrant that even I noticed it. I was getting my hair cut and just as my stylist was finishing up, this other stylist walked in the room and admired her handiwork. She was a really striking black lady with close-cropped blond hair like the woman on those Feria hair-color commercials. She leaned over and touched her fingertips to the corner of my mouth and said, “your mustache is too long though. Want me to trim it for you, baby?” I said sure, and she got out the comb and scissors and got to work. She was unnecessarily close the whole time, and when she was done she touched the corner of my mouth again, smiled in a way I can only describe as naughty, and said in a sassy tone, “NOW we can see your LIPS.” hee hee heee…
I was floating all day. She couldn’t even have been angling for a tip, because she wasn’t officially working on me.
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
Flirting with me is like flirting with a brick wall.
According to my friends, guys flirt with me all the time - not that I would know the difference. My friends are really subtle about letting me know when I’ve blown off yet another guy. The second the guy walks away I get slapped in the back of the head and asked “what is wrong with you?”
Princess of the Time and Space Continuum since 1969 (upgraded to Goddess 01/07/00)
OK, we have enough youth. How about a fountain of smart. =^…^=
Oh Lord, I am the absolute worst when it comes to telling when I’m being flirted with. I also have a nasty habit of flirting when I’m really not trying to, which has led to some pretty interesting situations.
Apparently, a guy who I’ve known for three years has liked me since the first day we met. We were never close, but when we’d run into each other at school or parties, he’d flirt so heavily that everyone within earshot noticed. Except me, of course. So finally, after three years of this, he leaned in to kiss me a few weeks ago. I pushed him away and was utterly shocked. The next day I was telling my friends, and mentioned that I couldn’t believe how out of the blue it was… Everyone started hurling pillows at me and screaming that it had been obvious for years. I still can’t see how it was…
Yep, I’m really that dense. I blame it on my brother and guy friends – they tease, tickle and torment me to no end, plus they demonstrate wrestling moves on me, always carry me around (usually against my will) and snuggle with me. Every flirting tactic that high school guys use is simply normal behavior with us, so it just goes over my head.
-Lanna