I'm finding it very endearing that Pope Pius XII had a goldfish named Gretchen.

I'm picturing a dollhouse-sized cathedral, with cats walking around inside dressed as bishops.

It'a cultural thing. Some cultures see it as the best possible gift, as the new couple will probably be putting toward something like a house. In my WASPy family it would be Not Done.

I know it's something that varies widely, so it doesn't bother me anything. But as for my own wedding, my mother would haunt me until my dying day if I expected or let people know I wanted money as a gift.

Thanks so much for the link Robin. I had no idea!

It is estimated that the Money Dance is done at well over half of all the wedding receptions throughout the United States.

It also makes sense that the money is used for the honeymoon...and that the groom gets it too.

That wasn't the case at the weddings where I've seen the money dance. Just the bride...and a lot of the men were very suggestive in with their donations.

It gave me the skeeviest of jeebes.

Maybe I've got money/shame issues to work out...

Now I'm just going to chuckle at the unavailable people sitting on the wrong coast thinking Colbert is theirs.

See! Hec and I are snickering at them.

::links pinky fingers with Heather::

You mean Stephen Colbert, SCRAPPY'S DAILY SHOW BOYFRIEND, don't you?

I heard Colbert was going to be your secret boyfriend until he heard you only got a trim at Frenchy's.

Personally, I wouldn't think very much of getting money as a wedding gift. It seems a little tacky.

Well, we're horribly tacky here in the midwest. I've been giving money at the wedding for the last however many years, although I get a gift off the registry for showers.

That said, most of the people I know who've gotten married in recent years already have their houses and salad shooters, and have less of a need for Stuff.

I often am not a creative gift-giver.

The emails are from him, mostly. I only work that job Mondays and Thursdays, so I'll be there in the morning, but there should be no expectation that I'm working there today. As I, in fact, am not.

Jesse, the next time there's a crisis do you want people to be emailing you and then getting upset that you weren't there to answer? Do you?!? Put down the reply button and back away slowly.

The emails are from him, mostly. I only work that job Mondays and Thursdays, so I'll be there in the morning, but there should be no expectation that I'm working there today. As I, in fact, am not.

Ah, then ignore away, I say. Of course, were it my old boss, he'd have called my cell, my house, the bar, anyone who knows me & so on.

But, Hec, I didn't get a trim, I got a whole new haircut--a shortish shag and I look fabulous, honest. Good enough for Stephen "I Love Scrappy" Colbert.

He does have my cell number, I'm pretty sure, so I figure he can either figure that out or figure out that he doesn't need me anyway, as the piece of paper he's looking for is sitting on top of my desk in addition to being saved whereever he saved it in the computer.

@@