DH and I, before getting hitched, agreed that any name change I may make need not be legal- the expense and general bother just wasn’t worth it to us.  Alas, the many surprises that marriage brings included a complete about-face on the legal name change issue.

A bride may await me, someone who I do not know, someone who is eager to accept the proposal and draw up the contract that will legally define our relationship. I don't know what to think, where will she live? I have no means to support her, I can barely support myself right now as a student. I hope this is nothing more than talk, and nothing that may become reality, but I have a photo of her, I'm single now, but what to do?

I just realized in a flash of brilliance how a woman can have more than one husband in Islam! Temporary Marriage! If she's got a set schedule with them, she can make each contracted period end before the next one arrives.

Now if I were to become a second wife, I would insist on this sort of thing.

As the fairy tale goes, what is good for the golden goose is….wait how does it go?

*This is part of the "fractured" series and is meant to be taken lightly, as a joke even, with a bit of deeper meaning to be found at its heart. The fractured series is based on "Fractured Fairy Tales" from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

I've had to collect several snappy answers to the "Why aren't you married yet?" question, and my grandma was sweet enough (grandmas are like that) to supply me with a great one today.

She's getting hitched!

She's 87, and marrying a guy she's dated for years. They wanted to marry a while back, but his children were very much against it. My grandma's fiance finally had enough of his kids' bellyaching, and overrode their objections. So they plan to get married as soon as the lawyer can complete the pre-nup.

Did I tell you that my grandma is totally awesome? No? Well, she is.

Dan Varisco's post on gay marriage, the trade of young brides in Afghanistan, and the value of marriage on his group-blog Tabsir is so sensible it just makes me still with gratitude. Most of Varisco's writing is like this. He is one of those who combine comprehensive knowledge of an area and common sense. Here he offers a summary analysis of the historical value of marriage and suggests we might consider that there would be no loss of value should gay marriage be legitimized. Cultures have typically used marriage to build legitimate alliances between families or communities, regulate sexual access to fertile women, and consequently protect the validity of the alliance through the legitimacy of the offspring. It is only rarely about love. The child brides given over for debt in Afghanistan are symptomatic of marriage as alliance in its worst manifestation. Needless to say here, such marriages are not Islamically legal. But we all know too that few care what legal scholars have to say.