Rom-Com Tropes

Wingmen required: Grouper sets up three-on-three blind dates at local bars — andit works

For $20, Grouper sends you and your wingmen to meet your other threesome at abar like Kung Fu Saloon. The $20 fee also includes a round of drinks.
Kung Fu Saloon/Facebook
Grouper sets up three guys and three girls (or three guys and three guys, etc.)on a blind date at a local bar and let's them loose.
CEO Michael Waxman founded Grouper in the summer of 2011 in New York City. Itdebuted in Dallas in September.

It’s full-on Cuffing Season right now, if you were unaware. With the cold weather slowly rolling into Dallas, those carefree summer attitudes are being replaced with hot chocolate, pumpkin patches and finding someone who actually enjoys pumpkin patches.

I wasn’t looking at Cuffing Season as anything that significant, but my colleague, Rachael Abrams, mentioned that one of her friends had done this new group dating site called Grouper. She said that her friend had a good time.

Then she asked me if I was seeing anyone.

If you have two friends with you, then it lowers the risks. This is when Grouper goes from “Internet dating” to meeting new people and getting drunk.

Psh, I see tons of people on TV every night, Rachael. But it got me thinking — Grouper might be worth checking out.

It’s a gloriously simple set-up: You connect your Facebook to Grouper and fill out a few preferences on age; what kind of nightlife scene you prefer; and what kind of experience you want, ranging from hook-up to finding “the one.”

Then Grouper sets you up on a date with someone else in the database. The twist is that each person brings along two wingmen for the party. Because if you have two friends with you, then it lowers the risks and lessens the opportunity for awkward silence.

This is when Grouper goes from “Internet dating” to meeting new people and getting drunk.

I put the call out to a group of friends to see who would be interested. Of the six I contacted, all of them were up for it — even the ones with girlfriends.

Grouper didn’t tell me anything about the other group other than two truths and a lie that my match wrote. I was given a date, told to get my wingmen assembled and then wait.

The night before the Grouper (the company avoids the word “date”), I received a text from Lexi, Grouper’s logistics person, telling me that I would be meeting “Sarah” and her wingwomen at Bryan Street Tavern at 8 pm.

We figured the worst that could happen was we would have a couple of drinks and part ways.

We’ve already noted that BST is one of our favorite bars, especially for its Thursday night happy hour with $2 wells. Well, would you look at that? We were going on a Thursday.

Theories were abounding about just what kind of women we would meet. After all, this was still a blind date — and not even one set up by a mutual friend but a website. Still, everyone was optimistic. We figured the worst that could happen was we would have a couple of drinks with some strangers and part ways.

We were a few minutes late to the bar, because one of the wingmen forgot to put his clothes in the dryer before work, so he had to scramble to fit into his still-damp pants. We were a little out of sorts when we got there.

We were instructed to go up to the bartender and tell him we were with Grouper and there to meet our other party. There’s also a round of drinks included in the $20 you pay Grouper.

But BST’s bartenders had no idea what Grouper was, so we just kind of stood there at the bar awkwardly sipping our Shiners, trying to spot a threesome of girls that looked like they were lost too.

After a few minutes, we noticed some girls also awkwardly standing there looking around. We made eye contact.

The Grouper was the least awkward three-on-three meeting of strangers we’ve experienced.

“Sarah” and her friends were all UT graduates three years older than we are. At first, it seemed like the age gap might be a road bump, but there’s this thing called alcohol.

We found out we had some mutual acquaintances, and the fact that five of us had gone to Texas meant there was plenty to talk about. Our outcast wingman who went to Notre Dame just kind of nodded along as we talked about Cain & Abel's and Lake Austin.

We won’t get into too much detail about the Grouper itself except to say that it was the least awkward three-on-three meeting of strangers we’ve experienced. The girls were funny, cute and really competitive at shuffleboard.

We ended up staying at BST for nearly four hours, making those $2 wells count, and then we moved the party to Katy Trail Ice House to shut down the night.

The next morning, as I was contemplating putting an ice pick through my skull, I received a text message from one of my wingmen: “Don’t know about you, but I’m about to go to work smelling like a bar mat.” My other wingman was two hours late to work.

So, good job Grouper. We’re still a free agent for Cuffing Season, but we met three people in Dallas that we didn’t know before, and we had a great time doing it. Not bad for a blind date.

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pet protection

How to protect Texas pets against the dangerous New World screwworm fly

MPhoto by Tran Mau Tri Tam ✪ on Unsplash

Make sure these guys are up on their flea and tick meds.

Two New World screwworm cases in dogs are among more than 30 confirmed instances in Texas and New Mexico, prompting warnings Wednesday, July 8 from veterinarians and humane societies that pet owners need to remain vigilant to protect their animals.

The parasite reappeared in cattle in the U.S. in June, more than 50 years after it had been largely eradicated from the country. The pest is actually the larvae of the New World screwworm fly. It eats live flesh and fluids rather than dead material, as the larvae of most fly species do.

Here is what to know about the parasite, the threat it poses to pets and how to protect them:

Screwworm fly larvae can infest any mammal
The fly's migration north from Panama starting in 2024, and through Mexico in 2025, has agriculture officials warning that it poses a threat to the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry, but the larvae can hatch and breed in any mammal, including wildlife, dogs, cats and occasionally humans.

The problem develops when a female fly lays its eggs in open wounds and mucus. After the eggs hatch, the larvae feed for about a week before maturing, dropping to the ground and continuing to develop into an adult fly.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says newborn animals and animals with open wounds or who have undergone surgery or other medical procedures recently are especially vulnerable. Even a tick bite can host an infestation, Aaron Grady, executive director of the Houston Humane Society shelter, said during a webinar on the screwworm.

Screwworm fly close-up The goal is to stop these flies from successfully breeding. Photo courtesy of Texas A&M AgriLife

Infestation signs include restlessness and bad smell
Animal health experts say pet owners in areas where the screwworm is present — southern and southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico so far — should watch their animals closely and examine them for wounds, cuts and bites regularly.

Pet owners should look for any maggots or movement in a wound. Other signs include a foul smell and restlessness or anxiety in an animal, or an animal “hyper-fixating on looking or chewing in a certain area of the body," said Melissa Stansell, a veterinarian at the shelter Austin Pets Alive!

Any one of those is reason enough to go to a veterinarian. The affected animal is likely in a great deal of pain, and that can cause death from shock. The larvae also can cause death if they move into vital organs or by causing infections that turn deadly.

Flea, tick medications can stop an infestation
Humane society officials and veterinarians said shelters across Texas are trying to prevent infestations in animals by giving them prescription flea and tick medications. They recommend that pet owners do the same.

“It will kill the larvae as they ingest the blood and tissue,” Stansell said. “The chemical compositions of those products are what kill the actual larval stages of these flies.”

Veterinarians also can treat infestations and animals can recover if pet owners contact them quickly. Stansell said the treatment could include antibiotics.

“It is only fatal if left untreated,” she said.

An effort to eradicate the fly again is underway
The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species and decades ago would disappear each year when colder weather arrived with the fall or winter.

But state and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials aren't waiting for the weather to turn. They've returned to an eradication method that worked decades ago, breeding sterile male flies and releasing them into the wild. The female New World screwworm fly mates once in her monthslong life, and if her partner is sterile, her eggs won't hatch — causing the population in an area to drop and then disappear.

For years, the only factory breeding sterile flies in the Western Hemisphere was in Panama, but the USDA invested $21 million to convert a site in southern Mexico from breeding fruit flies to recently start breeding screwworm flies. The agency also plans to spend $750 million on a new fly factory in Texas, set to open next year.

screwworm fly pets