That’s because I read your comment wrong 😅

Sorry, native speaker and language teacher here and I disagree. This is dialect dependent, but in my dialect at least, it’s the glottal stop at the beginning of a vowel sound that triggers it. Saying “an European” for me is like saying “an yellow.”

I don’t know if that’s a yeltsin or a Johnson joke

I’m your age and I’ve done it several times, including with my husband.

The caveat is that you start with coffee or a drink (my husband and I arranged to play mtg and have a beer), then the conversation is so nice that you order food or move from a cafe to a restaurant.

Now that I think about it, all the good relationships I’ve been in that weren’t with friends of mine involved dinner tacked onto the first date. When I’ve dated friends, it’s a very different progression, but doesn’t really involve restaurant dates at the beginning.

I also definitely would not eat there. I don’t know why it’s assumed that you would eat dinner there after being stood up. I’d be sad and I’d want to be alone, at absolute most I’d get takeout, but there’s probably a greasier takeout that I want, but have been restraining myself from. I’d very much prefer tacos/falafel to a date restaurant meal if I’ve just been stood up.

That warm blue does look cozy, in that it looks like the color that your dad’s old too-short shorts were in the 70s.

PBS/NPR?

Bodily curiosity is good and penises are funny

I’m not trying to be a jerk here, but what’s an example of a warm blue? I can’t imagine it.

What evidence do you have of that?