First date? Make sure she eats

He isn’t exactly Dear Abby, but Washington State coach Mike Leach isn’t just about football. Last Monday he was asked to give some  advice for first dates in Pullman.

   “Try to have somewhere where there’s not salad, because girls will try to show off and act like all they eat is salad, so try to put them somewhere where they’re in a position where they have to put real food in their mouth.

“They want to do that thing where they only pick at salads and stuff like that, so once you get past that, because that’s sort of a speed bump in the whole thing, you want to get past that immediately.

“I would go to Black Cypress if you really want to make a good impression. If you want just good, solid food and aren’t as into the atmosphere, I’d go to Mongolian Fire, which I really like. So one of those two.

“But if you go to the more  high-end Black Cypress I’d talk to Nick beforehand because he has the menu and it’s all really good and I’d just instruct him that the point of this is to make her eat. Because  if you can make her eat she’ll talk. Other than that it’s all this pretention and stuff like that.

“The key thing is make her eat, then she’ll relax, then there’ll be some dialogue and you can get to know her and see if you’re interested in dating her beyond dinner.

“He’s got some great appetizers and he’ll come by and keep hitting you up – here’s this, try that – and I think it should work out really well.”

Leach’s first date with his wife?  “Had just finished a rugby game, went to A&W. I had a coupon book. She’s looking at the menu, ‘what looks good? What are you getting?’

“I handed her the 2-for-1 coupon book. I said ‘I don’t know, but here’s the menu.’

Would you recom- mend using a coupon book? “It worked for me. You’ll cut the weak out of the lineup right away if you do it that way.

“You’ll only be involved with committed people if they’re going to do the coupon book. It doesn’t hurt.

“If you’re just trying to dress your life up a little and pretend you have a relationship, then maybe you don’t want to use the coupon book if it’s some kind of a volume deal. But if you want to zero in on one or two, break out the coupon book, saw off the weak right off the top so you can get down the path to find the right one.”