Man invoices his date for half the cost of dinner.
This missive from a woman who meets a man through JDate (a Jewish singles network), goes on a date with him, and then receives an invoice for half the cost of dinner after supposedly reneging on an agreement to accompany him again began circulating on the Internet in June 2004. We have since been unable to discover whether the message reproduced above reflected someone's real experience, whether it might havebeen intended merely as a joke (perhaps the parties involved were members of the legal profession), or whether it was possibly a tall tale cooked up by someone who had reasons for wanting to promote the sending of angry mail and phone calls to the person identified.However, whatever the origins of the 2004 tale, its scenario was apparently acted out in real life in June 2006. According to the New York Daily News, Darren Sherman, CEO of Regulatory Advisory Services (a private financial consulting firm in New York) and former SEC official, sent a number of e-mails and left several voice messages for 'Joanne,' a woman he'd taken to dinner on 4 June 2006 at China Grill, an upscale Asian eatery on W. 53rd in New York. Apparently, despite saying while on the date that she would agree to a second outing, Joanne did not subsequently contact Darren to set up another meeting, leaving him to feel (as he put it in one of his phone messages) 'you took advantage.' A few weeks after their evening out, he began pursuing her for payment of $50, an amount he regarded as her fair share of the restaurant bill. Those pursuits have included leaving voice messages threatening to contact her employer about the matter and take her to court, making sure to have a summons to appear served at her place of business.'You ate the food. You drank the wine. Kindly pay your bill,' said Sherman on one of the voice messages he left for Joanne. The frustrated swain also contacted China Grill, asking that his AMEX charge for the evening in question be reduced by $50 and 'Joanne' dunned by the restaurant for that amount. Personnel at China Grill have confirmed to a number of people who have checked with them that yes, the couple did dine there, and that they've subsequently spoken to both parties.According to JDate, Sherman has been suspended 'for behavior that violated the terms and conditions of membership,' so date-minded ladies looking for him in that forum should now search elsewhere. Copies of his e-mails and voice messages to Joanne can be found at PR. Differently.Mr. Sherman might have gained the idea to dun Joanne from a story circulated online in 2004 (quoted in the 'Example' block above), which would make his 2006 collection attempt an act of pseudo-ostension, a term meaning 'the deliberate re-enactment of an existing legend.'
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