When a man offers his seat to me, I usually take it, with thanks and a smile. Not because I want to be put on a pedestal and treated like a delicate, fragile possession, but because I'm a wee bit old-fashioned myself and like to think that he treats his mother, wife, or daughter with the same respect and should be rewarded with positive reinforcement, not glares and angry epithets.

I have a rule about offering my seat to an older person: if it's a woman old enough to be my mother, or a man old enough to be my grandfather, I give up my seat. It's not because these people appear frail, but because they are elders and deserve our respect, and I would want my mother and grandfather (were he still alive) to receive that kind of respect. Visibly-pregnant women, disabled commuters, and other obviously beleaguered souls always get my sympathy, too, but I see people much more willing to give up their seat for a pregnant woman than for an elder, and I think that's a shame.

I draw the line at finding political implications in the demonstration of old-fashioned manners. Maybe it's chivalry and preservation of the patriarchy, but if I have a choice between having doors held for me because I'm a woman and having them slammed in my face because of equal-opportunity bad manners, I'll take the chivalry every time. Anything to get people treating each other they way they would want those closest to them to be treated.

I wonder if there are any teachers at her school who are divorced and remarried, and if this is public knowledge...

that made me all weepy, especially the part where she hugs her father. I hope they have a long, happy life together.

This was fun to watch. The bride is beautiful and radiant, and everyone just seems so amazingly happy and elegant in their wedding clothes.

Our wedding video--well, by these standards--probably left a bit to be desired. It was done by a friend of my husband's back in the era of Bush I--he just set up a Sony camcorder with a VHS tape (remember those?) on a tripod at the back of the church. It was blurry and the sound was terrible, but we really appreciated it. I selected the processional based on our organist's level of skill. However, not only did all kinds of lost chords emerge that should never have seen the light of day, but her timing was a bit off--when I reached the front of the church, she stopped abruptly midpiece on a minor chord, which had a rather ominous effect. One half expected Eric Idle, dressed as the Archbishop of Canterbury, to step out and start intoning lengthy platitudes about marriage to prevent me from being carried off by the evil villain.

Our minister was a very by-the-book, no-nonsense Methodist, so there was no tackiness of the sort that made me shut off the first video, but we were nothing to write home about--two geeky kids at the front of the church, my husband in the same suit he wore to his high school graduation four years before, and me in a tea-length dress bought off the clearance rack at a local discount department store (probably not even really a wedding dress) and a short veil my mother ran up on her sewing machine at the last minute, making me look sort of like an overgrown First Communicant.

My parents weren't really very good at public displays of affection, so there would have been no touching parent-child moments (except for my mother frowning at my bangs and saying, "You should have done something with that hair").

The expression on both our faces throughout the whole ceremony was pretty much deer-in-the-headlights. I think we were worried we'd get our lines wrong and end up marrying the wrong people and embarrassing our parents. And then, in the middle of the ceremony, when a friend of the family was singing "The Lord's Prayer" in a truly magnificent baritone (seriously), you can clearly see me surreptitiously squirming from the pain of kneeling on my ankles.

We've been together for almost 18 years of more-or-less bliss, though, so maybe not having a slick wedding video (or an equally slick wedding) isn't the end of the world. Since the organist completely wiped out on the recessional as well, maybe a cheesy pop soundtrack would have been an improvement. How about, "All You Need Is Love"?

*All* back, that is. We can't see her face! I don't wanna stare at the groom in his zoot suit for ten minutes--it's all about the bride!

You're getting the hang of it, Rob! Snark away.

Seriously, I thought the same thing. The whole goal of this marriage is to pop out little Mormon babies. No wonder she needed a "game day face." Gorgeous dress, though.

Can we have an off-topic marijuana legalization post filter, please? After you get done with the angry male troll filter, thanks.

Can someone provide a link? Couldn't find it on the main RSM site...thanks.