Questions Nobody Wants To Hear On Valentine’s Day

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Questions Nobody Wants To Hear On Valentine’s Day

Tyrades! by Danny Tyree

Valentine’s Day is a time for exchanging sweet nothings and terms of endearment. It is an occasion for sharing candlelit meals and opening romantic gifts. It is an opportunity for igniting new sparks or basking in the warmth of comfortable, memory-filled long-term relationships.

But certain phrases can be a real “buzz kill” – putting you in an awkward position, creeping you out or making you want to look around for the nearest exit.

My wife and I could very well spend Valentine’s Day evening watching recorded episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” That long-running CW improv show often has hilarious sketches in which the performers must brainstorm things like “Things You Wouldn’t Want To Hear In (Insert Situation).”

With that in mind, I’ve assigned my researchers to pull together an assortment of the questions most likely to make a shambles of your Valentine’s Day:

– “Agreed, dear, Valentine’s Day is the ultimate ‘date night’ and — hey, isn’t that the babysitter on TV in that white Bronco?”

– “Do you think this dress would make my sister’s butt look fat?”

– “Do you ever get the feeling that we knew each other in a past life – and did I manage to keep my sexual orientation secret from you that time, too? D’oh!”

– “Don’t you think the three most beautiful words in the English language are ‘Dutch treat, baby’?”

– “Just thinking out loud, would one of your kidneys go with that offer of your heart?”

– “I wonder if the eye color of your steak was the same captivating color as your own eyes?”

– “When the TV announcer said my ex-beau won the lottery, they didn’t happen to flash a telephone number on the screen, did they?”

– “Don’t you agree that a marriage certificate is just a piece of paper… like jury duty summonses, restraining orders, eviction notices…?”

– “So, you promise that whatever colors you choose for your bridesmaids’ dresses, they won’t clash with blackface?”

– “I’m sorry – did you say, ‘have children’ or ‘halve children,’ not that there’s anything wrong with that?”

– “Don’t you think the Whitman’s Sampler lid would be even more useful if it supplied information on which chocolates I’ve already licked?”

– “Uh, would it spoil your mood if I told you that when Cupid started firing his arrows, I exercised my ‘stand your ground’ rights?”

– “When you were little, did you have fanciful daydreams about being royalty, or did you have more realistic ambitions like, I don’t know, getting sucked into the Witness Protection Program by falling for some poor schmuck you met on a blind date?”

– “Isn’t it amazing how the Conversation Hearts candy seems to be speaking directly to me? You don’t have duct tape and a sledge hammer in your car trunk, do you?”

– “Oh, you mean I was supposed to ‘swipe left’ if I thought someone was a gross loser?”

– “Don’t you think ‘love at first sight’ is overblown, unless you go straight to the telephoto lens, I mean…”

– “Did you notice that this wine goes down all metal-y and diamond-y?”

Of course, some jarring questions come as part of a “two-for-one” offer. For instance, “Now the medication the veterinarian prescribed for the dog’s mange was the little blue pill, wasn’t it?”, followed by “Hey, who broke the table leg???”

Copyright 2019 Danny Tyree. Danny welcomes email responses at [email protected] and visits to his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades.” Danny’s weekly column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate.

Controversial author Harlan Ellison once described the work of Danny Tyree as "wonkily extrapolative" and said Tyree's mind "works like a demented cuckoo clock."

Ellison was speaking primarily of Tyree’s 1983-2000 stint on the "Dan T’s Inferno" column for “Comics Buyer’s Guide” hobby magazine, but the description would also fit his weekly "Tyree’s Tyrades" column for mainstream newspapers.

Inspired by Dave Barry, Al "Li'l Abner" Capp, Lewis Grizzard, David Letterman, and "Saturday Night Live," "Tyree's Tyrades" has been taking a humorous look at politics and popular culture since 1998.

Tyree has written on topics as varied as Rent-A-Friend.com, the Lincoln bicentennial, "Woodstock At 40," worm ranching, the Vatican conference on extraterrestrials, violent video games, synthetic meat, the decline of soap operas, robotic soldiers, the nation's first marijuana café, Sen. Joe Wilson’s "You lie!" outburst at President Obama, Internet addiction, "Is marriage obsolete?," electronic cigarettes, 8-minute sermons, early puberty, the Civil War sesquicentennial, Arizona's immigration law, the 50th anniversary of the Andy Griffith Show, armed teachers, "Are women smarter than men?," Archie Andrews' proposal to Veronica, 2012 and the Mayan calendar, ACLU school lawsuits, cutbacks at ABC News, and the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon.

Tyree generated a particular buzz on the Internet with his column spoofing real-life Christian nudist camps.

Most of the editors carrying "Tyree’s Tyrades" keep it firmly in place on the opinion page, but the column is very versatile. It can also anchor the lifestyles section or float throughout the paper.

Nancy Brewer, assistant editor of the "Lawrence County (TN) Advocate" says she "really appreciates" what Tyree contributes to the paper. Tyree has appeared in Tennesee newspapers continuously since 1998.

Tyree is a lifelong small-town southerner. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications. In addition to writing the weekly "Tyree’s Tyrades," he writes freelance articles for MegaBucks Marketing of Elkhart, Indiana.

Tyree wears many hats (but still falls back on that lame comb-over). He is a warehousing and communications specialist for his hometown farmers cooperative, a church deacon, a comic book collector, a husband (wife Melissa is a college biology teacher), and a late-in-life father. (Six-year-old son Gideon frequently pops up in the columns.)

Bringing the formerly self-syndicated "Tyree's Tyrades" to Cagle Cartoons is part of Tyree's mid-life crisis master plan. Look for things to get even crazier if you use his columns.

Danny Tyree welcomes e-mail at [email protected].