PBS And Service Dating

Anyone used to watch the show Blind Date? Roger Lodge was the MAN, wasn’t he? I bring this up not because I’m watching television at 2 a.m. and nothing else is on, but because I’m thinking about first dates. Good ones. And nobody had better, more creative dates, than Roger Lodge and his team.

Blind Date proved dating is an art form. Inspired by my memory of this classic show, I present the downsides and upsides of two different dating genres I plan to incorporate into my own dating life.

PBS DATING: Named after the PBS channel; taking a woman out to learn something.
Examples include: Going to museums, jazz and classical music concerts, anything involving Shakespeare or aquariums.

Upside: The great thing about PBS Dating is it shows a woman’s appreciation of culture and propensity for knowledge. If she has an open mind, she will soak everything up, no matter how foreign or boring the experience and that kind of attitude scores high marks. PBS Dates also, if done right, spark interesting discussion about things other than, you know, our previous relationships, unless the woman usually dates curators. Then we’re in trouble.

Of course, the main draw of a PBS Date? They’re usually free.

Downside: Sometimes, these dates are BORING! I’ve been a jazz buff since the days it was cooler to like Kriss Kross, so we’re covered there. But the rest? Eh, only interested sometimes.

PBS Dating experiences require a passion about the activity. Don’t just take a woman out to Hamlet in the Park because it’s Hamlet in the Park. We both read Hamlet in 10th grade and we both probably hated it. Besides, a lot of PBS Dating is a put on. Act like we’re into learning something, hope she finds our pseudo-curiosity about the world a turn-on, get surprised when the special exhibit of artists who came of age during the post-industrial revolution didn’t make her panties wet.

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SERVICE DATING: Taking a woman out to do public service or good deeds; MLK Dating in shorthand.
Examples: Feeding the homeless, park clean ups, marching for a cause, benefit concerts

Upside: The real benefit of a Service Date is it’s dating with a purpose. Right now, the relief efforts in Haiti are inspiring people to give back in all sorts of ways, and most of us are looking for any opportunity to be of some help. In New York City, tons of restaurants are donating some of these profits to Red Cross and other organizations benefiting victims of the tragedy, so if I must to take a woman out to eat on our first date, I’d do my best to make her to one of these restaurants.

When it comes to service activities, like feeding the homeless, these are great first date buffers. If a woman is down to get her sneakers on, put a net in her hair, tie on an apron, and fill some plastic bowls with poorly seasoned chicken soup, all for a good cause, she’s a keeper. I don’t know in what world she isn’t.

And unlike PBS Dating, which is sometimes free, Service Dating is free 99 percent of the time, with the occasional suggested donation or cost of a benefit concert, which is almost a sub category of Service Dating. I say that because here, a different rule applies.

The other day on my Loveawake dating site blog I asked women if a man is still required to pay for the date, if the cost of an activity was going towards a good cause? Most All women said a man should still pay but they would also donate whatever the cost was.

That’s a hustle.

She’s going to willingly let me donate twice as much as her all for the sake of tradition? Nonsense! Any woman worth her salt is going to take it upon herself to donate to a good cause as much as I am, otherwise, I am using the extra pass to the luxury spa I won in the raffle on someone else.

And I am completely kidding about that last part.

Downside: I’m pretty sure when a woman is thinking date, she isn’t thinking two hours at an adult literacy center helping people learn how to read. It’s a pressure date if there ever was one. Service Dating is almost a challenge to a woman. It is asking, in so many words, Girl how big is YOUR heart?

Be careful with the Service Date. We may think a good deed with some fine woman is going to help us do some bad deeds with her later, but we could end up doing the good and the bad deeds by ourselves. I know it worked for our President, who took his future First Lady to a community board meeting for one of their early dates, which she has said was a major turning point for her. But let’s keep it real, when most of us use the good old Service Date as a bait and switch, we’re trying to be more like Barry, less like Barack.