Dan is the man, but the acronyms are out of control

This is probably the least entertaining letter you'll ever get, but I hope it'll make a nice break between snot-suckers and shit-eaters. I'm 18 now, going to college and I think I might be in love.

Sep 10, 2003 at 2:06 pm

This is probably the least entertaining letter you'll ever get, but I hope it'll make a nice break between snot-suckers and shit-eaters. I'm 18 now, going to college and I think I might be in love. I know it might seem like I'm jumping in with both feet, but I don't think I am. I met this girl on one of my frst days in college — granted that my college has been going on for only four or fve days — and I can barely get through the day without thinking about her. Not in a sexual way, either (although that would be nice) — I just can't keep her face out of my mind or her voice out of my ears. I want to know how I could know if I'm truly in love with her and what I should do if I am. I can't ask my friends, because we met a lot of the same people, and I'd feel like a dork asking my parents. I'll keep my fngers crossed that you'll answer me, because I'll trust your advice no matter which way you go.

— Dreadful Advice Never Invades Savage's Type, Helping Even Mucophogists Attain Nirvana

There's a good reason sex-advice columns are flled with letters from snot-suckers and shit-eaters, DANISTHEMAN: They're freaks, their problems are interesting and the answers aren't always obvious. Your letter, on the other hand, is pretty damn dull — in fact, I'd go so far as to say it's the dullest letter I've ever run.

And your question? "Is it love?" That's precisely the kind of problem a young man is forced to take to his parents, because no one else on earth besides his parents could give even the teeniest, tiniest, turdiest shit. A nice, normal young man with a run-of-the-mill crush on a nice, normal young woman? Is there anything duller?

But, hey, here's some advice: Are you truly in love with this girl? Only time will tell. Ask her out, date her and if you're still crazy about her after 50 years of marriage, well, it was love.

So if DANISTHEMAN's letter is so dull, I hear other readers murmuring, "Why are you running it?" Because he's provided me with an opportunity to send a very important message to everyone who reads my column: ENOUGH WITH STRAINED ACRONYMS ALREADY. The reason I started making acronyms out of people's sign-offs, folks, was to save space. Alert readers noticed and soon were creating cute little sign-offs that, once they were turned into acronyms, spelled out something short and sweet — like SNOT or SHIT or FUCK. But things have been getting out of hand on the acronym front. While I appreciate everyone's efforts — and in the case of DANISTHEMAN, the sentiment — endless sign-offs that spell out clunky, run-on sentences don't really save me any space. So save yourselves the trouble, acronym fans, because I'm not running any more sign-offs that result in acronyms longer than fve letters.

My boyfriend broke up with me after a short relationship (six weeks). A few of my single friends say that I had sex with him too soon. I've just gotten back into the dating pool (after a divorce and a long recovery period), and I'm wondering how long one is supposed to hold out. I slept with him after seven dates. I really liked him, but did I look cheap to him? I even dressed up in skirts and sexy nylons to please him on our dates (per his request) and really tried to please him and make him happy. Am I so off-base to think that this is the way to get a guy, or do I have to play games and act hard to get? What is going on out there? Or is he just an asshole?

— Calling on Notable for Urgent Sage Edifying Direction

When in doubt, CONFUSED, always assume the other person is an asshole. If you were writing in after suffering through a string of similar breakups, well, I might tell you to look inside. But getting dumped by one guy after six weeks? That doesn't really prove anything. All we know for sure is that, for whatever reason, it didn't work out with Mr. Skirt and Panties. The willingness of your friends to fnd fault with you tells us more about them — they're assholes too — than it does about what went wrong with Mr. SAP.

I'm a woman looking for a domination/submission thing. I met this guy online. Here's the issue, in short: I don't have a pic of him or a real name. He claims he'll give this all to me when we meet. We're supposed to meet for a quick coffee just to see how things go. We have talked on the phone, but I still have nothing else. Should I hold out for a pic and a name or should I just meet him, with a friend, in a public place?

— D/S Confused

If you tell him that you're nervous about meeting him without knowing his real name and he still won't come tell you, well, that's a very bad sign. If he's unwilling to make you feel comfortable and safe about just your frst meeting, how is this guy going to treat you and what regard will he have for your comfort levels once you're, say, tied up in the midst of a D/S scene? There are plenty of other kinky guys out there, DSC, so don't settle for someone who gives you the creeps or acts like one.

Hi, Dan. Straight girl here who loves your column. Giddy admiration aside, I have a problem: As time progresses I fnd myself more and more attracted to women. My frst sexual experience was with a woman. So it's pretty apparent that I'm a bisexual. But I don't know who I can talk to about my sudden realization or how I can meet other bisexual women. I go to a rather large university and have been dating men consistently for the past few years, but I want women. What can I do? Thanks.

— Hot and Lonely

Finding another bisexual college girl at a large university is about as diffcult as fnding a beer bong on frat row — if you can't fnd one, you're not looking very hard. According to the new issue of Details (yes, the one with Ashton Kutcher on the cover), people under 25 are all freakin' bisexual these days — even the boys. While some might be tempted to dismiss the story as so much wishful thinking on the part of Details editors (especially the part about the boys), I know for a fact that it's true. Once upon a time on American college campuses, only girls could be casually bisexual, dabble a bit and still be taken seriously when they claimed to be straight after graduation. Now straight guys are being cut similar sexual slack, and I think that's just swell.

So how do you fnd yourself a girl, HAL? You open your mouth and start telling people you're bisexual, for starters, and once you're comfortable doing that you start hitting on girls you fnd attractive. Make yourself easy to fnd and some hot girl will come along and nab you — but don't be surprised if she wants to bring along her fratrat boyfriend, his beer bong and the dude he's messing around with on the side too.