The Rational Basis® of Happiness Podcast

Starts at 6m 58s

(this is raw unedited text transcribed directly from the audio)

Movie clip

Female:           You’re going to forgive me when you find out the wonderful thing I’m doing for you. There’s this great woman who lives in my building. She’s beautiful, and funny and …

Male:               Just stop right there, Roz. I do not go out on blind dates. They’re demeaning and a hideous waste of time. No thank you. No.

Female:           It’s not for you. It’s for your father.

Male:               Oh! What time can he pick her up?

Dr. Kenner:      That’s from Frasier. You probably recognize the voices. Now, what about blind dates? I can tell you, I broke up with a boyfriend, or he broke up with me – it’s so many years that I don’t even remember, which is good news for those of you who are going through the pain right now. Wait a while and you may not remember who broke up with whom. But I broke up and my parents were very concerned that I would go back with this gentleman. He was a nice man, but we were definitely not a good match. So my mother put out an all points bullet and she just had all her friends calling all their friends and trying to find sons that were my age and for about a week, this was during the Christmas holidays, vacation from college, which is about a month, my mother got me fixed up with all of these different guys. I’ll tell you, the first one was a complete dud. It was a bummer. The guy was so insecure. He dressed to the hilt. He dressed to impress, and so what do you do? Do you just give up on blind dates? I’ve got to tell you, my last guy, I’m going to tell you about this guy. He comes to the door and he is not dressed to the hilt. He’s wearing Dungarees. And he’s got his little puppy in the car, but it’s not a little puppy, it’s a huge dog and I’m not a dog person. And the dog is in the front seat and he takes me out to eat and at the end of the meal, he tells me to order whatever I want – order a steak. That’s not typical for me, but I ordered a steak and he did too, and at the end of the meal, without batting an eye, he hands a two for the price of one coupon to the waitress and he had no awareness that this was not how to impress. But he also had no awareness that that’s exactly how to impress me. I thought he was the coolest man on earth. And he did other things. He came back to my house and my family doesn’t drink coffee, and so he came in and found some instant coffee and just went though the cupboards and made his own coffee. That is my husband. That is my husband of several decades now, and I adore him. So if you’re poo-pooing blind dates, you may just want to try the next one. It may work out for you.