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Love in the Age of Legal Blogs
Given that this is Legal Blog Watch, we tend to watch what is happening out there in the world of legal blogs. We've seen blawgers come, blawgers go, blawgers rise in popularity and blawgers fall in popularity. But here is something we've never seen before: a blawger deciding to marry someone she met through a comment posted to her blog.
By her own description, Ann Althouse, law professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, announced her engagement somewhat enigmatically. After returning from a spring break week spent in Cincinnati with the commenter known as Meade, she posted a set of photographs on her blog that ended with one showing only her hands as she was fitted with an engagement ring. The import of the suggestive photo was confirmed when Meade added a comment to the post proclaiming, "Althouse said yes! I am the happiest man in the world." Later the same day, Althouse added a second post for the benefit of anyone who did not understand the first.
Let there be no doubt about it: A blogger — Althouse — is engaged to be married to a man who began his connection to her as a commenter on her blog. After 4+ years of writing at each other, we met in real life and found real love.
As word spread of this unprecedented union between commenter and blogger, Althouse appeared on Bloggingheads.tv to tell how it all happened. "I just found out I'm getting married," she announced, adding, "It's as if the blog was a massive net that was sent out there to catch the one perfect person."
That one perfect person had been commenting on her blog for four years with nothing more coming out of it. After an e-mail exchange between the two in December, they had their first face-to-face meeting in January. That meeting "didn't work out well," Althouse said. But after a further exchange of e-mails, the two met again over Valentine's Day weekend. That meeting went "incredibly well," she said. They spent more weekends together in February and then 10 days during spring break in March. By the time that last visit was over, the two were engaged.
Reaction from other bloggers varied. The news prompted one blogger who is no fan of Althouse to declare, "This is what the internet invented OMFG for." Andrew Sullivan comments, "No comment possible," and then mistakenly accelerates the timeline of their courtship. And at Above the Law, Elie Mystal says, "Thank God I'm married. I'm so glad that I don't have to look for love in the comments." As for Meade, he no doubt counts himself the lucky one. In the Bloggingheads.tv interview, Althouse says he told her that he believes most of the people who post comments to her blog are in love with her.
If you are a lonely legal blogger having trouble finding romance in your own life, perhaps you should check to make sure you have not disabled comments.
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on March 31, 2009 at 02:01 PM | Permalink
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