{"id":2793,"date":"2003-02-12T11:50:50","date_gmt":"2003-02-12T11:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.armedliberal.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2003-02-12T11:50:50","modified_gmt":"2003-02-12T11:50:50","slug":"dating-advice-from-the-armed-liberal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=2793","title":{"rendered":"DATING ADVICE FROM THE ARMED LIBERAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Tenacious G (my sweetie) and I went out for our pre-Valentine\u0092s Day dinner last night. We have the boys Friday, and it\u0092ll be a zoo everywhere, so we went to our favorite neighborhood bistro and had a nice dinner together.
\nWhich was slightly spoiled by the conversation at the next table. I\u0092m usually pretty good at filtering, and too polite to acknowledge that I\u0092m eavesdropping (or reading your mail upside down on your desk), but this was just too much, in every sense of the word.
\nIt was a first date. He was (from the conversation) about my age, but overweight, balding, and with a sunlamp tan and a ponytail\u0085a combination that I can\u0092t imagine the ladies could resist. I\u0092m commenting on his physical attributes (actually more his \u0091presentation\u0092 of them) because they meshed so well with the personality that he displayed at dinner.
\nI kept one eye on my watch for a bit and at one point he talked over three minutes without stopping. I think she said about ten words in the entire hour and a half that we were there, and the conversation from their table never stopped.
\nThey (he, actually) discussed Iraq. He\u0092s against it, but he would have gone to Canada if his lottery number had come up during Vietnam and would personally drive his son to Canada today (in his Ferrari) if he was in any danger of serving in the military. We can\u0092t invade Iraq, he explained, because we haven\u0092t defeated Al Quieda, and we haven\u0092t made a settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Once we do those things, he\u0092d be open to considering it if it was OK with the U.N.
\nI have a discussion on his points<\/a> over at Winds of Change.
\nHe discussed work. He\u0092s apparently a prosecutor, and he discussed how unfair the laws that he is sworn to enforce are, and how he practices his own form of \u0091jury nullification\u0092 on cases that he thinks are just unfair.
\nHe discussed (at painful length) his divorce, his lack of a relationship with his children, and his dysfunctional dating history.
\nHe discussed his cars (a 70\u0092s Ferrari, a 60\u0092s Porsche, and a new BMW).
\nHe discussed dancing, and the kind of music he likes. He went on a long riff about \u0091the sensuality of just moving your body to music\u0092\u0085i.e. he dances like a white guy.
\nSo in 90 minutes, he did a kind of miniature \u0091Biography Channel\u0092 special on himself.
\nThere are so many problems here\u0085
\nLook, I\u0092ve never been a \u0091playa\u0092, but I\u0092ve certainly dated a bunch (TG would say \u0091more than a bunch\u0092) and met a bunch of neat women (even married a couple). I\u0092ve given some dating advice to my sons and to my more relationship-challenged friends (male and female, showing that they\u0092ll take advice from anybody<\/u>). But it was all I could do not to turn around in my chair last night and go \u0093Stop. Stop now<\/b>. Ask her something about herself, and let her complete her answer<\/b>. Explore her<\/b> interests. Hand her<\/b> the keys to the conversation, because believe me at the rate this is going you aren\u0092t going to be getting any<\/u> tonight.\u0094
\nSo let me offer some dating advice to my fellow middle-aged divorced guys:
\nShut the fuck up.
\nDon\u0092t try and \u0091sell\u0092 yourself, it\u0092s boring and ineffective. Help her<\/b> sell herself, and in doing so you\u0092ll sell yourself far more effectively than you could otherwise.
\nDon\u0092t inventory your possessions, inventory your passions.
\nDon\u0092t recount, in real-time, the story of your failed prior relationships.
\nDon\u0092t talk down your exes.
\nBasically, don\u0092t assume that you\u0092re the only interesting person in the room.
\nAnd lose the damn ponytail<\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So Tenacious G (my sweetie) and I went out for our pre-Valentine\u0092s Day dinner last night. We have the boys Friday, and it\u0092ll be a zoo everywhere, so we went to our favorite neighborhood bistro and had a nice dinner together. Which was slightly spoiled by the conversation at the next table. I\u0092m usually pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}