evolution of "cheap date", + "Asian flush"

[Indigo Som]

Oh yeah, I have heard this version of "cheap date" too, but much less
often. Perhaps because most of us are artists, writers, perpetual
students, adjunct instructors, &c., so most dates are cheap,
food-wise (although that's starting to change as some of us get
tenure, real jobs, &c. -- I wonder if we'll start using food-related
"cheap date" more?). Interesting you should mention Applebee's --
we're all such food snobs that we'd never even think of going there.
That would be an automatic *bad* date! Our cheap food dates involve
obscure Vietnamese restaurants & such. Ah, life in the Bay Area....

I should state for the record that all of this talk about dates is
secondhand &/or theoretical, since I've been about as married as I
can get for a very long time. Even so, I & other of my married
friends still use "cheap date" to refer to our low alcohol tolerance.
Can't remember if I have already at some point mentioned the related
term "Asian flush": I get red in the face (although not drunk) after
half a glass of wine.

>From:    Indigo Som <indigo at WELL.COM>
>
>:  If you get drunk easily, then
>: you're a cheap date...
>
>For me, "cheap date" doesn't have any alcohol connotations. (I don't drink,
>but this observation seems to hold even among my friends who do. I'm 33yo,
>most of my friends i'm talking about are somewhere in the same age range,
>maybe tending to be a bit younger, and generally not as hypereducated as
>Indigo Som's group.) In fact, there's no real sexual connotations to it,
>either, except maybe for some very mild ones--it simply means someone who's
>satisfied with non-high-class versions of dating rituals, particularly when
>on the other person's dime (for example, someone who's satisfied with being
>taken out to dinner at Applebee's rather than Le Bec-Fin is a cheap date).
>
>I don't know that there's any shame (or pride) involved in calling oneself
>or annother a "cheap date", except insofar as it implies (mildly) that
>there's a certain lack of refinement on the part of the person being so
>labeled.
>
><snip>
>
>David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.


--
Indigo Som
http://www.indigosom.com

Poets don't have hobbies; they have obsessions --Leonard Nathan