Free First Tuesdays = The Opportunity for a Cheap Date

Thinking about ways to get laid that don't require spending money.

For some reason, being smart and cultured is considered sexy. Whether you actually are these things doesn’t really matter as long as you pretend to be, or at least pretend to want to be. And that’s where museum free days come in. Pretty much all of the best museums in the United States have one or more days a month where admission is either free or 'œpay what you can' (for those of you who aren’t too good with subtly, 'œpay what you can' means ignoring the disapproving looks the ticket taker gives you when you pay with a $1 bill). By taking your date to the museum on one of these days, you’re not only saving money, you’re seeming like you know stuff about stuff. That being said, spending a quiet day at the museum may not always be the best idea for a first date.

I remember a few years back meeting a girl at a bar and totally hitting it off with her. A couple days later we made plans to go to the SF MoMA for it’s free day. Unfortunately for me, in the drunkenness of our first meeting, I didn’t realize how quiet the girl was. All of this was fine during our time in the museum because your supposed to be quiet there, but once we left the MoMA and went to the park across the street, she still didn’t say much more than a few words at a time. Being the jabber mouth that I am, I couldn’t handle all the dead air in our conversation, so I found myself talking even more than normal. I’d start saying shit I didn’t even believe, just to avoid the awkwardness of her not saying anything. I’d be like, 'œWow that Jackson Pollock piece was really quite amazing. Wasn’t it?' and then think to myself, 'œWait, I hated that fucking piece! What the hell am I talking about?'.

I guess that story really didn’t help illuminate my point about free museum days at all, but I figured that I’d include it anyway just because it happened on one of them. If nothing else you can at least walk away from this having learned that, while free museum days are a good, cheap date, the quietness of the museum might mask the fact that the person you’re with is either a mute or enjoys watching you squirm with awkwardness. In that case, maybe it was the best date she’d ever been on.

In San Francisco, many of our best museums are FREE on the first Tuesday of every month, which means today (1/4), all of these are FREE:

Conservatory of Flowers

de Young Museum

Legion of Honor

Cartoon Art Museum

SF MoMA

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Gallery