Aisle Be Embarrassing You

My best buddy's about to propose to his girlfriend, and he's running some pretty crazy ideas by me. Basically, he wants to propose big -- do something public and outrageous. Am I wrong that this could be a bad idea?

--Crazy Dude's Bud

There are public people and then there are private people, like my boyfriend, who'd react to a surprise birthday party with the enthusiasm he'd have for a surprise prostate exam. Sometimes, a guy who's proposing gets so caught up in creating the spectacle of the century that he thinks of everything -- everything but how it might go over with his girlfriend. Help your buddy out by asking him some questions -- whether his girlfriend's really the propose-apalooza type and whether they've at least had a conversation or two that crept up around the subject of marriage. "Will you marry me?" is one of those questions a guy shouldn't be asking unless he's pretty sure he already knows the answer -- especially when that answer will come while he's kneeling in popcorn and beer before his girlfriend and 60,000 people watching on the JumboTron. It will give him something to tell his grandchildren -- as soon as they're old enough to ask, "Grampy, who's that crying lady who isn't Grandma who's running away from you in the YouTube video?"