First dates from hell exposed in 140 characters

Now that people rely on the Internet for love (I saw a Match.com commercial claiming one in five relationships starts online), it's only natural they would return to the Internet to recount the dates that didn't end in magic. A new Twitter page called First Date Hell, and its accompanying aggregator, Crapdate.com, give serial daters a chance to dish their first-date horror stories in 140 characters or fewer, and some of them are pretty bad.

Rhodri Marsden started Crapdate.com after relaying first-date stories back and forth with friends at a local pub. His first post about one particularly long uncomfortable silence inspired some his 17,000 Twitter followers to reply with their own real-life nightmares, like this one from @BibiLynch, whose first date took her to a Laundromat, then proceeded to pay-phone ring his dad to describe her physical assets in agonizing detail.

If you can get through the awkwardness, reading the Web site unravels many of the male archetypes that we see in so many daytime sitcoms: there's the manchild who begs his date to rub his backside "like mummy used to"; the alpha male who blamed his tardiness on "doing hundreds of pushups"; and even the perv who unashamedly brags about his "significant porn collection." #Checkplease.

You can submit your own hellish first-date adventure by sending a Tweet to @firstdatehell, but why not post it as a comment below first? I bet it'll be cathartic for you.