Search Results for: blog when and where to marry

Would You Marry Yourself?

Would you want to marry yourself?  Most of us probably don’t think about this but you might want to if you have teenagers. Why?  They are getting closer and closer to that time of making a lifetime commitment.  And the chances are pretty high they will choose someone similar to their same-sex parent. It’s an interesting thing to consider.  Although my 18-year-old son is nowhere near ready to get married, he does talk about the traits he would like in a wife.  Many of them are similar to mine. Hopefully he will bypass the negative one in me when it … Continue reading →

Tossing the Bouquet and Garter

One wedding tradition I didn’t follow at my own reception was the tossing of the bouquet and garter. I didn’t like the idea that it symbolized women scrabbling to be the next to get married, or having Jon remove an article of my clothing in front of everyone. If we look at the origins of this particular wedding tradition, we can see how it evolved. Traditionally, brides carried a bouquet that contained strong-smelling herbs and spices. This was, in part, another way of warding off evil spirits, but it could also serve to sweeten the proceedings if any of the … Continue reading →

Prince Harry Adds to a Long Line of Royal Scandals – Part 2

Earlier in the week, I blogged about Prince Harry and his recent naked in Vegas photo scandal. Reports are surfacing that the royal family is still behind the young prince and why not? There have been royal scandals in England for quite some time now. Here are a few that might put Harry’s antics to shame: King Edward VIII abdicated the thrown to marry Wallis Simpson. Not only was she American, but she had been divorced – twice – and it was later revealed she was a Nazi sympathizer. Harry’s aunt, Princess Anne, was married to Mark Phillips. That in … Continue reading →

Business and the iPad

I make no secret about how much I love my iPad. When I upgraded my phone to the iPhone, I fell in love and knew an iPad was in my future. I once joked that if the iPhone was a man, I would marry it. Well, if the iPad was a man, I may just commit adultery. My love for these Mac products has caused many to ask me questions about the products. I always have to make it clear that my iPhone and my iPad are not game devices. I don’t even have Angry Birds on my phone and … Continue reading →

Magazines and Minimalism

I’ve always loved magazines with their glossy photos of the perfect living room or birthday cake or beach vacation splashed across the cover. They are filled with helpful advice from how to save money at the grocery store to how not to marry the wrong guy. My love of magazines started way back when I was a little girl tagging along with my father when he went to the newsstand in Brooklyn to pick up the paper. Sometimes the evening edition wouldn’t be in, and we had to wait for a few minutes until it arrived. I spent those minutes … Continue reading →

Protest in Chicago Over Birth Control Mandate

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The battle over birth control coverage continues. Over 500 people attended a protest in Chicago about the federal requirement that employer sponsored health plans must cover birth control. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the crowd of protesters were Catholic. There are two sides to this ongoing battle. On one side, is the federal government, who want women to be able to have access to birth control. The government recognizes that birth control is an important part of preventative care for women. As such, the requirement says that all employer sponsored health insurance plans must include coverage for contraception, without cost to … Continue reading →

Menopause and Muscle Tone

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About a year ago, I got out of the shower. I was surprised to looked down and see my grandmother’s legs. No, my beloved, dearly departed grandmother hadn’t come into the bathroom. But, I noticed my legs had started to look like hers. Before you ask how I knew so much about my grandmother’s legs, let me explain. I lived with my grandmother for almost twenty years after the death of my mother when I was 19. My grandfather had died about five years before that. With my father remarrying, I decided to spend my 20’s and most of my … Continue reading →

Making Money by Marrying

No, this post does not feature tips on dowries; rather, it will hopefully help debunk myths that many people have regarding monetary wedding gifts. Some individuals staunchly believe that it is tacky or lazy to give newlyweds cash in lieu of an item listed on their wedding gift registry. According to wedding etiquette experts, cash is actually a very practical wedding present, in more ways than one. For starters, unless it is culturally acceptable, most couples can’t get away with requesting guests give cash-only as a wedding gift, so by taking the initiative to present money as a gift you … Continue reading →

Stand Up for Yourself Already, Cinderella

Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella,” the particular version of the story adapted by Walt Disney, is another fairy-tale-as-morality-lesson. Disney ditches The Brothers Grimm when he makes “Cinderella;” even more strangely the credits cite Perrault’s story as the “original,” when in fact the rags-to-riches trope is an ancient and global motif. Even ignoring that the Brothers’ Grimm version predates Perrault’s. The reason I’m so fixated on the issue of adaptation is because I found Perrault’s “Cinderella” odious. The main moral (which cannot be mistaken; the end of the story is followed by an explanatory poem titled “Moral”) is that it doesn’t really matter … Continue reading →

Charlotte Collins: A Continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

I’m not usually a big fan of continuation novels where someone takes a expertly crafted classic and then jumps off of the story to one of their own, never quite reaching the level of the previous novel, a glaring comparison that tends to grate on one’s nerves or is just plain bad. Jane Austen seems to inspire many such sequels, prequels and alternate reality stories. There are a whole slew of Mr. Darcy’s daughters, sons and relations that get into all sorts of regional romance trouble. One of the most famous is the tongue-in-cheek zombie versions, which I confess that … Continue reading →