Pre-Ramble:  Every Sunday morning, I drag myself into the kitchen, fire up a pot of dark roast, and wait patiently while my beloved husband cooks up a batch of his world-famous pancakes.  He has perfected his top secret recipe and technique over the years to the point where I don’t even bother to order pancakes in restaurants any more because they couldn’t possibly measure up.

So, while I’m waiting for the batter to “rest” (apparently a critical part of the perfect pancake routine) I flip through the Sunday paper. We get the New York Times on Sundays — a consistently informative and insightful account of the events and issues of the day. Being the inquiring and scholarly type, I rifle through the pile to find, 1) the Sunday Magazine; 2) the Arts & Leisure section; and 3) the Styles section. 

I could lie here and say that I take an in depth look at the Week in Review and the Business sections, but the level of discourse on my blog pretty much rats me out on that. 

The Sunday Magazine always has a couple of interesting interviews or articles. This week there’s a fascinating piece on a synthetic biology competition (… the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition); a short story about a kid writing a college application essay about his younger brother who is autistic; and a fascinating profile on CNN chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, detailing her morning routine, the last book she’s read, the fictional character she most identifies with, and her career aspirations at age five.  All good stuff.

The Arts & Leisure section, as indicated by its name, has lots of interesting and colorful information about ground-breaking forms of entertainment that I will never see, like Ten-Time-Tony-Award-Winning shows on Broadway, Balanchine Week, Post-Minimalist art, and Jeff Beck live. (I have actually experienced that last one … It was deafening.)

It’s the Style section that contains the real entertainment. It has, after all … (drum-roll … fanfare … ) … THE WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENTS! 

Here are three reasons why those are so fun:

1. Match made in heaven – “When I met Adrian, it was like being hit over the head with a shovel,” Ms. Scouler said.  Mr. Weindling, however, recalled being skeptical of her upbeat personality… “Gillian walked in, and she was overwhelmingly bright, friendly and positive, which is usually a turnoff for me,” he said.
2. Got a younger brother? – “Dr. Kaple, 28, is a second-year medical resident in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame and received a medical degree, with honors, from Yale.”
3. Third time’s a charm – “The bridegroom’s two previous marriages ended in divorce.”

The Take-Away: There’s something simultaneously engaging and daunting about reading the street cred/life achievement/love worthy bios of two people who are about to walk down the aisle to certain wedded bliss. I am curious. The announcements make me wonder who the people are, what brought them together, and what their lives will be like. Their stories remind me of my own. Some make me smile. Some make me cringe. Either way, I wish them well.

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