'How I Met Your Mother': About that text from last night...

Are there hard and fast rules on when it's acceptable to call someone you're interested in whom you just met? To me, it seems like an awfully fine line -- call too soon and you're a creepy stalker, wait too long and the other party is no longer going to be interested. On tonight's "How I Met Your Mother," Barney proposed three days as the right length of time. I'm not sure about that, but at least he had a good reason.

The way Barney saw it -- and consequently quite possibly the way we all should -- is that Jesus waited three days to rise from the dead, so we should all wait three days to call that new, possibly special, someone. Call me crazy -- I thought that Barney's Jesus theory didn't sound half-bad. Obviously I'm not suggesting that Jesus rose from the dead after three days to let us know how long to wait to call someone, but it's as good a reason to wait before asking for that first date as I've ever heard.

Just as obviously, Ted wasn't going to be waiting to talk to his potentially new girl, Holli. Ted, sticking to the letter of Barney's rule didn't call Holli instantly, he sent her a texty text instead.

He should have known better -- you can't outsmart Barney Stinson. Barney Stinson is smarter, more well-spoken, more handsome, and I'll say it, better dressed than the rest of us. Ted didn't for a single minute believe that it wasn't Holli responding to Ted's texts, but it wasn't, it was Barney and Marshall (Barney was the instigator). They were writing some provocative things to Ted and it got to the point where they nearly had text sex with him, but that was at least partially because of Stan.

It may have been headed there before Stan, but Stan made the whole thing perfect. Stan came up with just the right lines to text Ted -- they were full of emotion, soul, and heart (some of it was apparently Pablo Neruda). Good old Stan, you can always count on Stan to help out in a fix. Don't pretend like you don't know that Stan is a security guard who was just introduced tonight and who got a date with Robin at the end of the episode, because we all know Stan (or we do now anyway).

I would have liked to have seen just how far Barney and Marshall would have taken the whole text thing, but we didn't get the chance. Robin, whom I normally love, told Ted all about the practical joke, and he in turn played with Marshall and Barney, texting "Holli" that he sometimes has gay dreams about his best friend. Sure, that was funny, but it wasn't as funny as Marshall and Barney doing the texting in the first place. Between that move by Scherbatsky and her going out with Stan at the end of the episode I felt a little hurt by her tonight.

Maybe I shouldn't though, after all Ted's joke led to the funniest scene of the night -- Marshall and Barney fighting over who Ted wanted to have sex with more. It also allowed Ted to actually track down Holli, who loved that Ted called her right away, of course, Holli was just like Ted -- crazy obsessive on relationships. She instantly did all the things you'd expect from Ted -- declare her love in a semi-joking but actually truthful way, try to plan a ridiculous trip, that sort of thing.

Ted dropped her like a hot potato, and thank goodness he did, because I refuse to believe that Ted picks up the future mother in the bar on a random night. What kind of ending to the story would that be?

Bits and pieces:

• If I could give the back-and-forth of the night it would be Marshall and Barney arguing about whom Ted wanted more, but that would be too long to put here. So instead, I'm just giving you the best bit from that scene as the quote of the night -- "Here's the thing, Barney -- I'm snuggly, you're not. Who wouldn't want to snuggle up next to this business on a Sunday morning? Wrapped in a comforter and it's raining outside and there's muffins warming in the oven... I'm cuddly, bitch! Deal with it!"
• Oh, Ted and the cowboy boots? He totally pulled them off.

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - We don't really texty text.