Date nights not always remembered for their romance

Research has long shown that one key to a good, lasting marriage is to keep the romance alive. One of the easiest and most obvious ways to do this is to have a regular date night.

Go to the movies, dinner, anything to get you out of the house and into each other's sole company. The newly released "Date Night" takes its premise from this theory.

Phil Foster (Steve Carell) and his wife Claire (Tina Fey) get a baby sitter for the children and take their bored marriage out for a night on the town. They take someone else's reservation and the action/comedy takes off.

Their relaxing, romantic date goes awry, like so many dates often do. Here, some semissourian.com readers revealed when their dates have gone astray:

Where's the restaurant?

"One year, I had made Valentine Day reservations for a restaurant in STL. I made them months in advance. My then girlfriend and I drove to the place to find that it had been bulldozed the week before. We pulled up to a parking lot with earth movers and tractors where a restaurant once was. They never called to tell me about their impending demise. We wound up eating at a Chevy's instead... ultra lame."

-- Posted by MrSnootyMcHandlebags on Fri, Apr. 2, 2010, at 11:03 a.m.

Skip the Jim

"On a second date, we went to the Rodeo at Camp Pendleton in CA. I drank 2 beers then went to a bar afterward. I had a couple of shots of Jim Beam. On the way back to Orange County (about 60 miles) I ended up puking on the side of the 5 freeway three times. I then had to be carried to my dates apartment and ended up passing out on the couch. It couldn't have been to bad though, He ended up marrying me.

"To this day I cannot even handle the smell of Jim Beam without getting queasy, and that was 20 years ago."

-- Posted by mdonze on Fri, Apr. 2, 2010, at 12:23 p.m.

strange women

"Well Chris, apparently I have a knack for attracting strange women. Neither of these stories are that bad, but I enjoy telling them and it's one of those things you really had to have been there for.

"Where I used to work, we had a tradition of going to Denny's after work (high-class, I know). One night, this girl I worked with insisted I go that night even though I really didn't want to. After she kept harassing me about it, I finally went.

"When we got to the restaurant, the waitress asked for our drink order. Before I could say anything, the girl said 'He'll have a Dr Pepper.' Then she looked at me and said 'Because I know it's your favorite.' I don't quite remember, but I don't think I actually wanted a Dr Pepper.

"Later, when the bill came, she insisted on paying for all it. When I offered to pay a couple of times she gave me a death stare telling me that she was going to pay for it. It was really weird.

"In a separate incident, I've also had a Denny's waitress pant at me like a dog.

"One other one was at a dance club where a friend was trying to set me up with one of her friends. It was OK at first, but then she got a little drunk and said 'You're a tiger, grr, grr!' and made scratching motions at me.

"There are many others, but I thought these would be fun to share."

-- Posted by almighty on Fri, Apr. 2, 2010, at 11:02 a.m.