Last week, he told reporters he was embarrassed and mortified, but today Baron Brooks is taking his father’s now-famous matchmaking efforts in stride.

Brooks, 48, is the Salt Lake City health-food broker whose 78-year-old dad, Arthur Brooks, recently bought a Coeur d’Alene Press ad seeking a wife for his son. The full-page advertisement, published in print June 18, said the younger Brooks is seeking a politically conservative woman who is ready to have children and stay home to raise them.

“The story has gone absolutely bananas — worldwide crazy,” said Baron Brooks, Monday, in a telephone interview.

News of the $900 ad has been picked up by media outlets nationwide and around the globe.

“I’m at the top of dating sites in Israel, Europe, Asia,” Brooks said.

A dozen women responded to the ad, Brooks said. None are from the Coeur d’Alene area, and two have already been deemed unsuitable for him by his father, he said.

Arthur Brooks originally planned to interview potential daughters-in-law Saturday at The Coeur d’Alene Resort, but the elder Brooks postponed the interviews after resort management relayed concerns about the anticipated media frenzy.

“When this all happened, I was as shocked as anyone else,” Baron Brooks said. “I don’t have any problem meeting women. My problem is maybe I meet too many women.”

His first inkling of the impending explosion of media attention came Monday, June 20, when a reporter called and asked him if he is a health-food store owner in Salt Lake City, and then asked him if he’s the guy looking for a wife in Idaho.

“I said, 'You’ve got the wrong guy,'” Brooks said. “Then she sent me the story. I looked at it, and I thought, 'What, are you kidding me?’”

Then his phone started ringing — a lot.

“I get tons of phone calls every day, but I was getting an insane amount,” Brooks said. “It wouldn’t stop beeping. I thought it was broken.”

Brooks said he was upset with his father at first for doing this without his knowledge or consent, and he doesn’t like the way the ad portrays him. He would not have a problem with a wife who has a career, he said.

“I think he made me out to be some sort of arch right-winger, like I’m looking for a barefoot and pregnant woman,” Brooks said.

But he acknowledged that because he’s 48, he has a hard time meeting women young enough to have children. He said he and his ex-wife lost a baby about 12 years ago, and it led to the marriage’s break-up. He lost his mother many years ago, he said, and has suffered other losses in the last few years.

Brooks said he has taken plenty of personal hits online because of the ad, and some people are saying he must be gay.

“I am not gay. I’m just a guy who's had a tough time starting a family,” he said.

He said he was very upset with his father at first, but he has forgiven him. He said he loves his dad, and he knows his father loves him.

“This is the saving grace, because not everyone comes from a loving family,” Brooks said. “Even though my father did blow up my life, he didn’t do it on purpose.”

And now, he’s going along with his father’s scheme, although he plans to join his father when the prospective wives are interviewed. They plan to hold the meetings in Salt Lake City.

“Life is short. You can’t defuse a bomb once it’s gone off. I might as well go with it, and have fun with it,” Brooks said.