What question would you ask on a first date, to know if they are right for you?

It’s social, so I’m open to serious or frivolous answers.

A while back I was hanging out with a guy friend. He kept telling all these great stories about his family, like how he and his sister got into a prank war, or how as a little kid, he spent a lot of time in the kitchen hanging out with his mom, and ended up learning how to cook. And he has a lot of close platonic friendships with women. (Including, uh, me.)

I never noticed it before this conversation, but that’s one area where a lot of guys aren’t well-rounded. I’ve met a lot of guys where the only woman they are emotionally close to is their wife or girlfriend, or the only time they’ll spend time with a woman is if they want to date her. They’d do things like travel in packs of 5–10 dudes to hit up bars late at night, call women “females,” or rate them on the 1–10 hotness scale in casual conversation.

I think learning about the other women in his life would be a really effective way to see how a guy will respect you. If he has a lot of guy friends, and no girl friends, or if he hangs out with his dad all the time and only grudgingly tolerates his mom, he might have some issues with women. If you’re on a date with someone, of course you can’t outright ask “do you respect women?” Every guy is going to say yes, in less he’s a serial killer or something. But it could be an important, read between the lines kind of clue.

Another important one would be “have you read any good books lately?” If they don’t have an answer, we probably won’t have much in common!

And also, “Neil Young or Neil Diamond?” There are two types of people in the world. ;)

What would you ask someone?