SEX « In Which We Give You 10 Rules For Dating Worth A Damn »
Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 8:53AM 
To the Gentlemen
by ALMIE ROSE
Gentlemen. I sense a dating crisis among our generation. The movies have lied to us. Nobody dates anymore. I'm not ready to give up on the movie dating montage we all want so here are some suggestions to help you along:
1. Zachary Braff, stop following me.
This is the 2nd time in 6 days that you and I have been in the same place. Oh I know: you didn't mean it, it's an accident, you don't know who I am, blah blah blah.
This one is important:
2. Gentlemen: If you are on facebook and you are in a relationship you need to put that shit on your profile. If you have a girlfriend you need to click the little button that says "In a relationship."
It takes two seconds and saves heartache. You don't even need to put the name of the person you are in a relationship with. But you need to declare it. To not declare it is tacky. And weird. I've had guy friends who counter that with, "I don't want people to know about my personal life on facebook." Are you serious? Really? Really Charlie? Then don't get on facebook. Get on linked-in or get your own website where you can put whatever the fuck you want.
3. If you have my number and are texting/calling me for the first time to see me, please suggest dinner.
I am worthy of dinner. Drinks = please take off my skinny pants and do things to my genitals on my couch while "Who's The Boss?" plays in the background. I don't want to speak for all women, I really don't, but I know that most of us appreciate being asked on a real date. And look, there are times when all I really want to do is get into your skinny pants with the TV on for background noise. But if you don't invite me out to dinner then you will never find out. Now if you're taking me out for drinks at a jazz club or something, that's different. But if you ask me to meet you at the bar where they serve free hot dogs, then have fun with yourself and Tony Danza. Even Patrick Bateman took his women on dates.
4. I always say that with a great number comes great responsibility.
I'm not joking. I mean, I am kind of joking when I say it because to say that with a serious tone of voice would make me sound like a tool, but the sentiment behind it is real.
5. If you ask me to dinner, don't try to sneak past the dinner hour and then text me.
Do you think I'm not going to realize that you're texting me at 11 instead of 7? Do you think I just don't get hungry? I love to eat. I'm like a little kid, I love going to restaurants. They're magical. Take me to In-N-Out, just own up to the dinner date.
This one is for the ladies:
6. Ladies, if you are in a relationship, you need to put that on your profile too.
And if you're going to name names, under "in a relationship with..." then you need to put the name of your real boyfriend. Not the name of your best friend, not Christopher Walken, not "art and beauty", but your boyfriend's name. I have a friend who thinks it's hilarious to put her best friend's name...even after she got into a serious relationship. Her best friend is a guy, so that made the whole situation confusing for everyone. Let's all just make facebook easier on each other.
7. No one has an answering machine any more.
If you really wanted to reach me, you had several ways of doing so: cell, text, email, facebook message, twitter, robots or some shit, etc. So if you didn't contact me I know it's because you really didn't want to. It's not like you left me a really lovely long message on my answering machine about how you can't wait to take me out for dinner at Dorsia but I didn't hear it because I was in the shower. No. This is not a Meg Ryan movie. Welcome to 2009.
8. Don't ask me out if you have a girlfriend.
Honestly, I'm surprised that this even needs to be said. But if this happens, if you do ask me out and I find out that you have a girlfriend, then I have every right to be steamed like Seymour Skinner's steamed hams. Once a guy asked me out and then wouldn't add me on facebook (which is suspicious, it really is) because I later found out he didn't want me to see all of the lovely photos of he and his girlfriend on it. I don't blame him, if I were him I wouldn't want me to see that either. But if I were him I wouldn't ask me out in the first place.
9. If you're throwing a party and you invite me, that can count as a date.
Just don't invite me if you're already bringing a date. If you do invite me to your party, please introduce me to your guests; it's rude not to. But if you do introduce me to your guests and then take their camera, take a picture of me, give them their camera back, and say, "This is for you to masturbate to later", that's worse. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
10. Be a gentleman.
I'm going to stop here because if I go any further then my head may explode. This is why my relationship with Sven is so good. Imaginary boyfriends are the best kind of boyfriend.
Almie Rose is the senior contributor to This Recording. She is a writer living in Los Angeles. She is the creator of Apocalypstick. She last wrote in these pages on the AMC drama Mad Men.
"Quicksand" - Tim Buckley (mp3)
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"Peanut Man" - Tim Buckley (mp3)
almie rose, dating, relationships, sex 
Reader Comments (14)
xo
This is a great post! But what film are those stills from?! It's annoying me SO much
I'm a dude and all. I get it. But dinner on the first date is a bit much. That's totally second date territory, especially if you don't know the person that well. You don't have to get all hot and bothered about it.
I think the stills are from "Pierrot le fou" but it could be another Godard movie I can't remember the name of
also, if in-and-out suffices as a dinner date, then shouldn't lunch be acceptable for a first date? or is that too friends-y?
I think you guys are getting caught up in the details of "second date dinner, lunch being friendsy etc." the thing is to make an effort and treat the other person in a way that doesn't just say "I just want to bone you"
Everything about this list is perfect. Thank you!
He's Just Not That Into You
Rent it now...
The stills with the same people in it are all from Pierrot Le Fou. A Classique.
Wow. Talk about Straight talk express. I love it. There are rules of Facebook....OBEY. More than anything, I think you strike at the core of the misdirection, "have my cake and eat it too" attitude that typifies any really prospects for genuine connection. Wow...did I just write that...hmmm. Ok...let's keep it. Keep up the honest work :)
Peace,
Parris
There can be only one dating article.
Dinner as a first date seems so formal, though, and with so many side roads of neurosis-producing stimuli (ordering anxiety, entree envy, place-choosing stasis with the back-and-forths, is there something in my teeth?, look at that thing in HIS teeth, I would be eating this but instead I'll eat this because it won't be so messy or awkward with the cheese-strings, and then the check); also, what about the broke homies? I feel you on the idea, I really do; this is why I want to introduce the idea of snackstaurants.
Think about it. Snackstaurants.
I have to agree with a few of the comments...
Dinner sounds too formal for a first date. I mean the whole point of the "Real date"s you're speaking of is not what should be happening when you have just met a person.
(Keep in mind that an old friend that asks you out does not apply for this)
My point is, why not something like a cup of coffee?
I mean maybe you don't like coffee, it's too late in the evening, or whatever..fine..but those restaurants serve food and other beverages too, you know.
I mean is it so bad if a nice guy asks you for coffee and takes you to a Starbucks and it's all on him?
I mean, a guy that you just met, that's the key part, cause..well..what if you have absolutely nothing in common and you would never work? You're both just pretty faces?
Well in that case the guy would have only spent his money on a cup of coffee and possibly a danish or something instead of a large meal summing up to over a hundred dollars for a girl he may not speak to again. That part depends on how they met and stuff but yeah.
God, I ramble.
I think I'm just trying to justify the fact that I haven't asked a girl to a restaurant for a first date before. Maybe.
Drinks is perfect for a first date. Low lighting, booze these things are social lubricants. But eventually dinner has to happen.