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Jewish World Review March 4, 2005 / 23 Adar I, 5765
Lori Borgman
Taking butcher knife on date cuts at heart of romance
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
I'm still trying to grasp the circumstances surrounding the 27-year-old
woman who passed through security at Newark Airport with a 5-inch butcher
knife undetected in her purse.
I've had a pocket knife (bright red, and my favorite), tweezers (round
tips, no less) and nail clippers confiscated. Naturally, it is hard to
imagine a woman getting through with a knife that would allow her to chop
cabbage while waiting for passengers in first class and those with small
children to board.
The lapse in security is just part of the story. The real stinger is that
the woman had put the knife in her purse several days earlier as a
precaution for a blind date.
It has been a long time since I was part of the dating scene and, yes,
things have changed, but … and I know blind dates can be iffy, but …
So, you are getting ready to head out the door to meet a special someone,
and you rummage through your purse one last time, checking for essentials:
Breath mints? Check.
Mascara? Check.
Lip gloss? Check.
Butcher knife? Check.
I'm trying, I'm really trying; but it's still not clicking for me.
I guess, if the waiter forgets to bring tableware, you can still handle the
rib-eye.
Or maybe both of you don't want to order a hamburger, you just want to get
one and split it. WHACK! "No charge for the extra plate, ma'am."
Say you're having coffee and dessert and get a poppy seed stuck between
your teeth. No toothpick? No problem.
On the plus side of packing knives for dates, we have the fact that
nobody and I mean nobody is gonna hit on your date once they see
what's in the purse.
And I suppose when a gal has a 5-inch blade in her purse and she says,
"No!" a guy knows she really, really means no.
It just seems there would have been a few intermediate steps between, "Yes,
I'd like to go out with you," and packing a butcher knife.
Group date? Double date? Pepper spray? For the sake of love, at least give
a taser a try. But a knife? It cuts at the very heart of romance.
It is hard to picture great romantics like the Bronte sisters or Jane
Austen crafting a character who commits to an outing with a man of such
questionable worth that she packs a weapon along with a spare hankie. What
we have here is a crisis of introduction. The woman simply didn't know
enough about her date to feel secure.
People used to get character references by word-of-mouth or
friend-of-a-friend. In the 19th century, a letter of introduction from a
friend or associate handled that sort of social etiquette. Other times,
beaus wrote their own letters. Today, it would appear, you weigh the odds,
get what scant information you can, and then raid the silverware drawer.
When a young woman knows so little about a man that she worries about her
safety, would it really be so awful to stay home and watching "American
Idol"? Simon may be obnoxious, but he poses no physical threat trapped
behind a television screen.
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