Thanks to my beautiful wife, I don't have to date anymore.

After two decades together, I feel blessed that my wife and I still like each other enough to be together. You can love someone until it hurts, but if you don't like each other, you're screwed. At least, that's what I tell people younger than me. You gotta be friends too, or you'll never be a good couple.

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My wife and I never really had a proper first date. Of course, we also didn't have a proper marriage proposal either. As we were trying out new furniture at Sam's Club, we realized maybe people would buy us some nice stuff if we got married. the rest is history... So it doesn't seem all that far-fetched that Maine's favorite first date spot is likely one of the most popular fast food destinations anywhere... Chick-fil-A.

A recent study says men are most likely to take their first date there.

Romantic candlelight dinner setting.
kieferpix
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Honestly, I have so many feelings about this, in both directions. Like, on one hand, I love the idea. It's a fairly low time and money commitment if it's going badly. On the other hand, if you're truly trying to impress someone, I wouldn't think that taking someone to Chick-fil-A would be a hit.

Chick-fil-A Ranks As America's Favorite Restaurant According To One Industry Survey
Brandon Bell
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Now here's a factoid I didn't expect... Over half the women surveyed, over 60%... They said they'd be totally down with a fast food first date. I guess I though that number might be a little lower, but hey... If they're cool with it, I'd be cool with it. It's like when I did engaged to my wife. She picked out her own ring, and it was less than $50. She probably would've totally been down with a Big Mac... Except for that whole celiac thing.

Woman rejecting a geek boy in a blind date
AntonioGuillem
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The other most popular choices were almost as surprising.

The #2 choice was Dairy Queen, according to WABI via DatingNews.com. This I can wrap my brain around. An ice cream date as your first foray into romance actually seems pretty cute. But #3 was Pizza Hut. No offense to Pizza Hut, but that's another spot that doesn't ring the romance bell for me, but I'm not judging. You do you.

Read More: Are You Always Getting Maine Lobster at a Maine Restaurant?

At the end of the day, there shouldn't really be any rules around dating. Whatever makes you and your partner happy is what's most important. It shouldn't matter whether it's off the Dollar Menu, or if it's from a Michelin Star restaurant. Love is love. You find your own way there, however it takes.

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LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood

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