There’s nothing like the delight of a great first date: easy conversation, shared laughter, hope for what may lie ahead. 

But all too often, that feeling is elusive. On any given night or weekend, especially in the before times, bad dates were probably happening all around us.

Or to us.

We asked you to share your terrible dates, then we selected three and sent them off to Tess Smith-Roberts, a London-based illustrator known for drawing her own, and others’, awful dates. (See this one, about an erratic professional triangle player, or this one, about a guy who truly believed he could time-travel.)

Below you’ll find three crummy dates, in comic form. We hope these give you a laugh — and maybe a sense of relief that you didn’t live them. Enjoy.

—Nneka McGuire, Lily multiplatform editor

Hi, I’m Tess.

I decided to start illustrating bad dates at the end of the summer, after a series of very unfortunate ones. In fact, a high ratio of my dating life has been pretty tragic, really (ha-ha). I kept telling my friends about these bad, funny dates, and one friend suggested that I turn them into a graphic novel. 

On Instagram, I invited my followers to share their own bad dates with me. The response was amazing — I received so many ridiculous and funny stories. I then started drawing them, as well as my own dates, and here we are. It’s a lot of fun, and feels very cathartic and enjoyable to get this all out. I think it’s good to be able to laugh at your own misfortunes, and even better to draw them. 

Check out the comics I drew for The Lily below.

From Bonnie Stice, 30, Austin

ICYMI

Three need-to-know stories

01.

Aetna, which covers an estimated 39 million people, announced in late January that it has expanded its coverage of gender-affirming procedures to include breast augmentation. Four transgender women who were denied breast augmentation surgery brought the issue to the company’s attention through the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, which prompted Aetna to update its clinical policy.

02.

The House voted Thursday to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her two committee assignments over her extremist remarks. As recently as last year, Greene had been an open adherent of the QAnon ideology, which played a role in inspiring the Capitol attack, and she made comments on social media suggesting that some mass shootings were staged by supporters of gun control. Hours before the vote, Greene publicly renounced some of her remarks on the House floor. 

03.

On Monday, senior Democrats will unveil legislation to provide $3,000 per child to millions of American families. The proposal is part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic relief package, and researchers say it would cut the number of children in poverty by as much as 54 percent, the equivalent of 5 million children. Under the proposal, the Internal Revenue Service would start sending families monthly payments of $250 beginning in July.

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A share from @thelilynews

Good news

A story to make you smile

Trudy Berlin is known to some of the senior citizens at her community center in Boca Raton, Fla., as “Oprah.” Every Tuesday, at 10 a.m. sharp, the 98-year-old enters a Zoom meeting, where an audience of 50 women eagerly await her. They are there for “The Ladies Room with Trudy Berlin,” a weekly discussion group Berlin has moderated for more than 20 years. When the pandemic hit, the long-standing in-person sessions went virtual, Sydney Page writes in The Washington Post. 

The women, between the ages of 70 and 98, discuss politics and other news of the day, as well as various personal quandaries. Berlin intends to continue running the group for as long as she can. “Time is limited, I am 98, after all,” she says. “But living your life is something you decide to do. And I decided a long time ago that I was going to do it.”

Until next time

But before we part, some recs

Rachel Orr

Design editor, By The Way and The Lily

How I’m keeping organized:

No matter how often I update addresses in my phone, I always end up losing them. Thanks to Postable, a free online address book, I have all my friends’ addresses in one place.

How I’m tracking time:

A giant moon circle wall calendar from artist Grace Lenhart. I love how customizable this calendar is — I use it to track my period, the moon cycles, the days I haven’t smoked and more.

What I’m listening to:

I like to listen to music without lyrics while I’m working and recently came across Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi while scrolling on TikTok. He’s been the soundtrack to my workdays ever since. 

🖤

Thanks for reading.