{"id":7449,"date":"2010-08-01T23:33:43","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T06:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=7449"},"modified":"2010-08-01T23:35:37","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T06:35:37","slug":"playing-the-who-married-em-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=7449","title":{"rendered":"Playing the “who-married-’em” game"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the ways I sometimes amuse myself on Sunday afternoons is to open the “Sunday Styles” section of the New York Times<\/em>, and turn to the wedding announcements. I look at the photographs of the wedding couples, and try to figure out who officiated at their wedding.<\/p>\n

Because it’s the New York Times<\/em>, most of the officiants are Epsicopalian priests, Conservative Jewish rabbis or cantors, Catholic priests, or Presbyterian ministers — you know, from the religious groups that are a little higher up, socially speaking. These are the boring couples, because I usually can’t figure out who officiated at their weddings; whether an Episcopalian or a Presbyterian or a Jew or a Catholic officiated, the couples all look pretty much the same. Sometimes you get fooled, though: although there aren’t many Lutherans in the New York Times<\/em>, when they’re there, they look a lot like Presbyterians.<\/p>\n

Then sometimes you get couple who was married by a justice of the peace, or by a friend of the couple who got a one-day license from the state, or by someone who picked up an ordination through the Universal Life Church. I can usually separate these couples out from the previous group; this second group might look a little scruffier (as far as any New York Times<\/em> wedding couple ever looks scruffy), or a little less conventionally good looking, or their photograph might be unconventional (this week, look for the couple on the bicycles — they had a Universal Life minister).<\/p>\n

Once in a blue moon you get a couple who had a Unitarian Universalist minister officiate. I always miss them, because I’m just not expecting them. So imagine my astonishment when I look to see who officiated at the wedding of the nice-looking middle-aged couple. I was expecting a justice of the peace (not many middle-aged couples in the Times<\/em>, plus he has facial hair) — but not only did a Unitarian Universalist minister officiate, it was someone I know.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Michelle, for finally making into the New York Times<\/em>. Now you have really arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the ways I sometimes amuse myself on Sunday afternoons is to open the “Sunday Styles” section of the New York Times, and turn to the wedding announcements. I look at the photographs of the wedding couples, and try to figure out who officiated at their wedding. Because it’s the New York Times, most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7451,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7449\/revisions\/7451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}