Practice Management

It is not that I do not like you, or that I do not appreciate your efforts.  I do.  (Oops, that is the wrong word to use).  It is just that I have been married to my girlfriend for a long, long time.  Going on 28 years, four children, a mortgage and a law practice together, I just cannot get that close to a commenter.

And, it now seems that Ann Althouse is out of the marriage picture because she did succumb to a marriage proposal from one of her commenters.

Althouse is 58, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and is an avid blogger, for Slate among others.  Single for 20 years, she is now engaged to a commenter on her blog known as "Meade".  According to The New York Times that has reported on this story, the man is Laurence Meade, 55, divorced, father of a college student and a garden designer and caretaker for a Cincinnati estate.  He happened upon Ms. Althouse?s blog, by clicking through a series of Web link.  He read Ms. Althouse?s blog daily, becoming a regular commenter. ?He would write jokingly as if he was in love with me,? Ms. Althouse said. ?You couldn?t tell if he was fooling around or not, but it warms your heart.  He developed a blog-crush on Ms. Althouse.  In December, in a private e-mail message, he asked whether they might meet. Nothing came of it.  In a January post, Ms. Althouse listed lessons from Clint Eastwood?s film ?Gran Torino.  Mr. Meade commented to her blog by asking ?OK. Want to have dinner with me and see it again??  Althouse wrote back, ?Yes, but you?ll have to come to Madison.?  Then Meade wrote privately to Ms. Althouse.  Offering him his Social Security number, in case she wanted to run a criminal check, and they made a date.  He then drove 10 hours to Madison and met her at the theater to watch ?The Wrestler.?  Meade kept writing to her on the blog and through e-mail. Then Althouse agreed to meet him once more at a cafe in West Lafayette, Indiana.  They kissed in public.  The next morning, Valentine?s Day, Ms. Althouse posted a photograph of the cafe with the caption, ?In the Heartland.?  The couple spent two more weekends and 10 days? vacation together.  Finally, Meade himself stepped forward and made the announcement: ?Althouse said yes! I am the happiest man in the world.?

And, the rest is history.

I am not sure this would work for me.  I am not even sure if my girlfriend likes my blogging that much.