Guilty Pleasures
We all have them. Since 1907, something pleasurable that induces a usually minor amount of guilt has been known as a guilty pleasure.
When asked to name their own guilty pleasure, many people will offer a type of junk food, a pricey line of handbags, or a massage or mani/pedi.
I have the following thoughts —
junk food — eat it or don’t eat it. but don’t ruin it by feeling guilty about it.
handbags — ditto. buy it…don’t buy it. but it you buy it…enjoy it!
massage or mani/pedi — it’s maintenance. promotes relaxation. NOTHING about which to feel guilty.
So here’s my weekly guilty pleasure:
The New York Times wedding announcements.
Every week, I eagerly await the end of Shabbat so that I can log onto the New York Times website and check out the statistics.
Was it a good week for us??? How do we know?
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- Names
- Look at the names. Names can often, though not always, be a good starting point. So if a Miss Sharon Kastenbaum and Mr. Daniel Schwartz are the couple in question, it’s a pretty good supposition that two MsOT (the grammatically-correct pluralization of MOT) have found one another in this crazy, lonely world.
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- Time of Day
- If that same Miss Sharon Kastenbaum and Mr. Daniel Schwartz are to be married this Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon, again, the odds are in our favour that this is a Jewish couple.
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- Officiant
- Finally, if the name of the ceremony officiant begins with “R,” as in rabbi, then it would be a safe assumption that the House of Israel is being built up.
We are a religious, cultural, and ethnic minority. And we are a minority that has suffered losses so numerous that we will never be able to compensate for the future generations who are forever lost to us and to humanity. So when two Jews meet, fall in love, and decide to sanctify their marriage at the chuppah through the sacred rites of kiddushin, it is a reason for the entire community to rejoice.
Perhaps not such a guilty pleasure, after all.
Frume Sarah is Shabbos-observant -- in a Reform way, that is. Please note that from Friday afternoons until one hour after sundown on Saturday evenings, Frume Sarah will be unavailable, in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
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Thank you for your understanding...and gut Shabbos!!! 
Frume Sarah's World 
separated. at. birth.
it’s the only explanation.
except i don’t login to the website to read it. i read through the whole newspaper slowly and carefully, saving the weddings for my last delicious section of the paper.
(except those weeks when i don’t get to the whole paper, then i ONLY read the styles section 🙂 )
I know. Scary…
I can’t wait for the print edition…
MsOT
Hmm…I have to think about that, first time I have seen it.
I hang around with a very strange crowd…and this is apparently the accepted pluralization.
Fascinating post.
I am Mormon (LDS), and rejoice all the same with you for the happiness of knowing when two people of similar religious beliefs come togther, strengthening one another in faith and bringing children into the world with that same faith.
We just returned from the Mormon wedding of my niece in Utah. It was a beautiful ceremony held at the Manti temple. Angels were in attendance, of that I’m certain.
Officiant starting with an R? I wish that were always a sign of a commitment on the part of the bride and groom to build a Jewish future. Happily, sometimes it is…sadly, sometimes it is not that at all.