HELLO, I LIED. So I’ve gotta motor–no posts on history, at least not until I reach England. Keep the contest entries coming–and the end-of-an-era/shark-jump emails. I’m not sure when I’ll next be posting, but I should have lots of goodies for you then. And I’ll be back to regular posting Monday, August 5.

In the meantime, you should read The Rat on marriage. I think she’s overemphasizing the insanity of the marriage vow–putting too much emphasis on the suffering and struggle inherent in marriage may make it harder, not easier, for people to make good marriages. De Rougemont does a fantastic dissection of our willingness to seek out and even fetishize suffering; and people are generally much more willing to work hard to be happy in their marriages if they think change from bad to good is possible. I think de R. errs slightly in the other direction–making marriage sound like a passion-free, practical alliance. Maggie Gallagher summarized my view of things when she described marriage as “the Song of Songs–and the Crucifixion.” But anyway, the Rat makes a lot of great points, and you should go read her. I know I’ve been promising a lot of posts lately and not actually posting them, but I will try to post something on the kinds of questions the marriage movement is and should be asking; I’ll post either from England, or when I get back.