Everyone at the wedding this weekend was happy. Granted, most weddings are happy affairs but this one seemed especially happy. Many reasons for this, but two in particular. First, all the people on the groom's side of the church (where I was seated) thought the groom to be one of the most special people around and had heard the same level of specialness attributed to the bride. And visa versa, the bride's side of the room was crazy about her and also knew enough about the groom to be crazy about him as well. Therefore, there was a high level of expectation and good will in the church. Second, their meeting and courtship was along the lines of a fairy tale and fairy tales don't often happen to men and women in their mid-40s. I hope the bride and the groom will not mind me broad-brushing their story for your reading pleasure.

Neither had been married before. Both were from the United States. The groom had lived and worked in Germany as a pastor for many years. The bride was living and working in Africa as a missionary nurse, as she had for many years. The groom was back in the U.S. waiting for his next pastoral opportunity. The bride was headed to the groom's city for a meeting. Through some connection, the groom offered to be the chauffer for the bride (but obviously they were not bride and groom at the time; they were not even acquaintances) while she was here. Love struck during the chauffering and being chauffered. Long-distance romance followed peppered by e-mails and some transAtlantic visits. A new European opportunity arose for the groom last Spring. He flew over there to firm up the job offer, then took a train to Paris and a plane to Africa where he proposed to his soon-to-be bride. As of this weekend, they are now married and both will be residing in a European country neither of them have ever lived in before.

Is that a cool story or what? I hope you find it as cheery as I do.

This morning I flew to Boston for a work project. I usually like to have a new novel reserved for a plane ride. I'm not wild about flying and like to have a mystery or compelling drama I can immerse myself in (ie, distract myself with). I found myself yesterday without such a book and so put a couple of magazines into my bag instead. Actually I had intended to get to the bookstore and buy a book by Lisa Samson. I recently discovered her blog (see my blogroll for the link to Author Intrusion) and have happily become a regular visitor. Admittedly, however, I've not read any of her books. My intention was to change that and make one of her books my plane reading for this trip. Unfortunately, bad weather and car-use conflicts yesterday prevented me from getting to the bookstore as I had planned. Thus, the magazines in my bag instead of her book. It still was a fruitful reading period. I was mostly distracted from the turbulence, little that there was, plus I learned a thing or two. Here are some items of note from my magazine reading:

The New Yorker, October 25, 2004

A new play by Michele Lowe has opened called String of Pearls. The premise of the play is that a woman finds a pearl necklace that she lost thirty years prior. The review says the premise "seems clichéd, but the charm and nuance of the writing make the fable believable and fresh." I think the premise sounds intriguing. What personal item may have been lost thirty years ago that would be fun or exciting or even life changing to now find?

An ad by United Technologies asked, "What makes cities possible?" The ad answers its own question by proposing that air conditioning, jets, and elevators are what make cities possible. I think it's a bit more complex than that.

Malcolm Gladwell is a contributing writer in this issue. A note about him says that he has a book coming out in January called Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Great title!

Tiffany & Co is featuring a gold heart bracelet for a mere $4,700.

Philip Obayda, an architecture student in London, has demonstrated that Murphy's Law (anything that can go wrong will) is a legitimate and measurable phenomenon. Factors in the mathematical equation include numerical levels of Urgency, Complexity, Importance, Skill, and Frequency for any given circumstance. I didn't understand how the equation worked out but that means nothing.

Despite the upset over the high price of prescription drugs in the U.S. compared to other countries, economists Patricia Danzon and Michael Furukawa point out that while drugs still under patent protection cost 25% to 40% more in the U.S. than in other countries such as Canada and England, generic drugs and over-the-counter drugs are much cheaper. In other words, we pay a lot at the beginning of a drug's lifespan and less as the drug gets older. In contrast, other countries pay less at the beginning, but they pay much more than we do for generics and over-the-counter drugs.

U. S. News and World Report, November 1, 2004
According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, people who spend "loads of time" (the brief article didn't quantify this term) in traffic triple their odds of suffering a heart attack within an hour of traffic. Potential reasons: stress? polutants?

Coke appears to activate a part of the brain that handles memory and exerts control over thinking. (I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a good thing or not??) This finding was determined by studying the brain activity of people after drinking the beverage. The study published in Neuron pointed out that the competing brand did not activate this part of the brain.