Then again, I had a friend in college who claimed that this line would work like a charm on pretty much any man. Well, okay, the exact line he recommended was, "Let's fuck."

I'm skeptical. I freely admit to being a standard-bearer for slutdom, and even I'm taken aback by someone assuming too quickly that sex is theirs for the taking without an effort at making friendly conversation first.

I would like to encourage everyone to do more asking out, in general. I mean, as long as the person is reasonably nice and non-creepy, it's almost always nice and flattering, even if you don't want to go out with them.

I would like to encourage everyone to do more asking out, in general. I mean, as long as the person is reasonably nice and non-creepy, it's almost always nice and flattering, even if you don't want to go out with them.

So you should ask people out that you don't want to go out with?

Sorry, I know that's not what you meant.

In that second sentence "the person" is the asker and "you" are the ask-ee.

OK, time to wang some chung.

In that second sentence "the person" is the asker and "you" are the ask-ee.

Yeah, that's what I figured. But it took me a sec.

I asked a woman who works at a nearby bookstore out last week. Her response was an enthusiastic 'maybe.' No really, she was enthusiastic.

Rock on! I hope it works out. There were definitely a few customers when I worked at Whole Foods who I always kinda hoped would ask me out. And last summer, I asked out the guy who sold me my bed. (insert joke here) Moral of the story: asking out people you meet in stores is a good thing and should be encouraged.

I used to never ask store employees out. I figured that female store employees got hit on all the time, so they must be tired of it. Eventually I decided that if the woman was genuinely friendly to me (i.e. not friendly in the mandated, "Have a nice day!" fashion), that it was OK if I asked her out in a non-obnoxious manner.

I'm skeptical.

So am I, although mostly I am just not that kind of gal. I like conversation.

As a former store employee (and a female one), tommyrot, I think it's perfectly OK. I mean, as long as it's not done in a creepy or rude way, obviously. But, it's like someone said above. Being asked out by a nice person is almost always a good thing, because you can totally say no if you actually don't want to, but it's really flattering.

Thanks, Frank. I've just started the hunt for the righ bp meds, and I'm not looking forward to it. (My dad told me yesterday that it took him two years to find anything that worked. Joy.)

Just to balance out your skewed data pool, it took me about 3 months. (And actually, the first 2 BP drugs I tried *did* bring my BP down; they just also had intolerable adverse effects, like passing out and extreme exhaustion.)

I am glad they are looking for other causes -because quite likely there is something else. but I will say for those of us that shot up to the stratosphere with the bp - the medication worked pretty quickly.

Well, as they keep telling me insistently, I'm too young to have high blood pressure like this.

Not really. I mean, you aren't typical, but you aren't a Freak Of Hypertension, either.