The NY Times wedding section is a place where people go to envy, analyze, or mock couples who manage to get announcements of their happy unions immortalized. It's not usually a place where you reel in disgust—until today's Vows column which describes two successful middle-aged people who "met in 2006 in a pre-kindergarten classroom. They both had children attending the same Upper West Side school. They also both had spouses." Dunh dunh DUNH.
Since their announcement is in the Times, the two obviously got married: Former WNBC 4 reporter Carol Anne Riddell and media executive John Partilla, now 44 and 46 respectively, apparently fell in love in love amidst school functions—and dinners, Christmas parties, and family vacations their families took together. Before they admitted their feelings to each other, Riddell "said she remembered crying in the shower, asking: 'Why am I being punished? Why did someone throw him in my path when I can’t have him?'" But after painful disclosures to their spouses, separation, and all that other stuff, the couple got married last month. Partilla, who has three kids with his previous wife, said, “I didn’t believe in the word soul mate before, but now I do." Ouch.
Gawker, which finds this scandalous though maybe self-fulfilling, draws attention to the Twitterverse's reaction: Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, Tweeted, "That Vows column was staggeringly monstrous. I'm waiting for the Modern Love column that's a rebuttal from the abandoned spouses," while financial journalist Heidi Moore believes, "Better than 'we were led to each other by careerist unicorns dropping rose petals,'" later adding, "My theory on why that couple did Vows: 'we destroyed marriages, yes, but at least we did it for something real. So real it's in the NYT.'"
However, this is the not the first time the Times has mentioned couples emerging after breaking up with spouses/girlfriends/boyfriend, though it might be the most blatant (usually it's just a more facile mention of the timing not being right). At any rate, enjoy this NY Times wedding announcement as a palate cleanser.
