Tim,

When I was referring to prostitution and fornication being acts of unlawful intercourse I meant historically and not necessarily contemporary. I’m sorry if that was not clear.

And obviously, if a first date is being used to establish who the respective parties are without an expectation of sex, then there is no need to ‘splash out’. In terms of what I deduce are Ariana’s frames of reference, if I was hoping for sex on a first date and courting one of the fairly shallow women that she cites in her article I would choose an expensive venue in an attempt to impress to increase my odds and hope for the best. I do take issue, however, with the idea that most men expect sex. I think that most men hope for sex which is different and at the end of the day women control sex and so we men can only get what we are given. That doesn’t mean that some women make bad decisions and clearly a number of men do what they can to induce women into making those bad decisions but except for rape it comes down to the woman’s choice.

And yes, honesty and communication would really help but for better or worse humans will often engage in lies, dissimulation and subterfuge because as a species we are selfish, and we use those strategies for personal gain, and they often work.

And no, you’re not weird.