Marriage

MOSCOW -- Time is running out on the single - and certainly the swinging - days of the man known as Russia's most eligible bachelor. Mikhail Prokhorov, the tall, fine, feverish spender who amassed a worth of $13.5 billion running the world's largest nickel producer, is getting hitched on May 3. To win a bet. Or so the story goes. Perhaps that's the only way to get him to settle down. The 41-year-old Prokhorov, after all, is known as quite a party man, throwing decadent bashes with women aplenty, where the cognac alone costs more than most Russians make in years.

More reason to serve better food in school I was pleasantly surprised by The Sun's article "Good for you, schools' bottom line" (Nov. 26), which presented reassuring findings from a University of Minnesota study that suggest, contrary to past findings, that healthy school lunches may not cost schools more and that children may not object to eating nutritious meals. I hope this research will add more fuel to the fire of the movement to promote healthy food for the nation's children. As is widely recognized, abnormally high levels of caloric intake contribute to weight gain among children.

The Fugitive Wife By Peter C. Brown The year is 1900, in gold-prospecting Alaska. Essie, a Midwestern farm girl fleeing from a stormy marriage, joins up with prospectors bound for Nome, where the golden sands teem with dreamers, schemers and high-rollers. You will not forget the lives met here, those thrown-together fortune-seekers who left behind marriage, betrothal, family and ultimately so much else in one of the great American quests.

A decade ago, the Catholic Church tried to annul my marriage. My former husband, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, wanted to remarry and stay in the good graces of the church; to do so, he needed the ruling. Despite 12 years of marriage and two children, a tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston decided that our union was never valid, nor were our children the offspring of a true Catholic marriage. I did not agree with the archdiocese's decision. I was sure that our marriage, though failed, had been real.

For more than 20 years, the husband-and-wife developer team of Clark and Debbie Turner had the routine down: He built the homes, and she sold them. Together, they made millions working on some of the highest-profile projects in Harford County. When they separated in late 2003, they resolved to continue working together to reap the benefits of their combined skills. The post-marriage business honeymoon didn't last long. Within a year, she had accused him in court filings of siphoning tens of millions of dollars from their businesses to a "parasitic, secretly-formed" company that didn't include her and said he was taking lavish trips using company money.

Ask any of your friends to name one sociological statistic, and I bet this is the one you will get: 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. Our kids probably think the figure is higher. Many of them have friends whose parents are separated or divorced. Children must think divorce is contagious, like the flu. But it isn't true. Half of all marriages don't end in divorce. Only half of some marriages end in divorce. There are ways to prevent divorce, and I am not talking about marriage counseling or sharing the chores or using "I" messages to diffuse arguments.

M. CARROLL RAVER, writer, photographer, cinematographer and film director, died Monday April, 9th. He was 67. A native of Carroll County, Md., he attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he was a National Collegiate Athletic Association champion fencer. Early in his career, while at J. Walter Thompson Advertising (NY), he served as a copywriter, producer and director working on television commercials for national clients including Ford. Later, as an award-winning director and cameraman, he directed commercials for Hertz, General Motors, the U.S. Army, BMW and others.

BOSTON -- Now is the summer of our content. The economy is up, help is wanted, the stock market is humming along -- and book sales are off by about 30 million books.What's going on here? The folks who survey the industry tell us that sales to adults are down 3 percent for one simple reason: "It's the economy, stupid." When people have money in their pockets they actually spend less on reading.So are we working more and reading less? Are we too busy reading IPOs to have time for hardbacks?

An Anne Arundel County official joined advocates for children in urging the General Assembly yesterday to ban marriage under the age of 16, calling the current statute permitting such unions "a shotgun law for pregnant adolescents."Robert P. Duckworth, clerk of the county Circuit Court, noted the well-publicized marriage of a pregnant 13-year-old girl and the baby's 29-year-old father last August in Annapolis. The case of Tina Lynn Akers and Phillip Wayne Compton Jr. received international attention, bringing calls for legislation to ban such marriages.

"Slackjaw," by Jim Knipfel. Tarcher/Putnam. 235 pages. $22.95 pages.Jim Knipfel has slowly gone blind over his 30 years, the light gradually fading from his eyes because he was born with a rare degenerative disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which attacks the rods and cones in the retina that make vision possible.Blindness, Knipfel says, is ultimately just another thing to deal with. Indeed, worse things have happened to him. Like madness. During his 20s, Knipfel also learned that his suicidal depression and emotional free-fall was the result of an inoperable brain lesion.

Do you think Maryland Del. Jon S. Cardin owes the public a further explanation of his Baltimore City Police-assisted marriage proposal? Yes 75% No 23% Not sure 2% (1,123 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Should the white man accused of beating a 76-year-old black man who was fishing at South Baltimore's Fort Armistead Park be charged with a hate crime? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

After the recent shooting at Harborplace, the Baltimore police committed to stepped up enforcement downtown. Are you confident in the city's ability to keep the harbor safe? Yes 13% No 80% Not sure 7% (1,764 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Do you think Maryland Del. Jon S. Cardin owes the public a further explanation of his Baltimore City Police-assisted marriage proposal? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

This summer we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Wood - sturdy and beautiful. Natural. We gave each other lovely jewelry boxes crafted by an artisan whose work we had long admired. A meaningful but private celebration - just like our wedding had to be. You see, we were married in Canada. Not because we were rebellious young people who eloped because our parents disapproved (though they did). But because our own country would not legally recognize our relationship, which had by then already lasted 25 years.

SAN FRANCISCO - -The California Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8 and existing same-sex marriages left in place all rights for California's gays and lesbians except access to the label "marriage," but it provided little protection from future ballot measures that could cost gays and other minorities more rights, lawyers and scholars said. In a 6-1 ruling, the court said the November ballot measure that restored a ban on same-sex marriage was a limited constitutional amendment, not a wholesale revision that would have required a two-thirds vote of the legislature to be placed before voters.

Laura Lippman was just on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, promoting her new book, Life Sentences. Ferguson asked if she sees much of another famous Baltimorean, John Waters. "Yeah, well, I'll tell the story because it was outed in the newspaper," she said. "We tried to keep it secret. John Waters was my minister. He married us." "Us" being Lippman and Wire creator David Simon. Ferguson needed a moment to get over his shock, but it's true: The Pope of Trash is a man of the cloth, ordained by the Universal Life Church, an outfit that sells minister's licenses by mail order.

I'm not surprised that virtually all of your printed responses to Sunday's editorial on same-sex marriage were in agreement with your paper's position in favor of it ("Rethinking marriage," May 10). The fear of being called homophobic, bigoted or even worse prevents most intelligent people who may be opposed to the idea from weighing in on this issue. There are two points in the argument for allowing same-sex marriages that are almost always avoided by those supporting it, and I thought it might be worth mentioning them.

As the third and final production of its opening season, Standing O is introducing its Chesapeake Academy black box theater audience to British playwright William Nicholson's The Retreat from Moscow. With this play, Standing O founder and artistic director Ron Giddings continues the mission of Anne Arundel County's newest theater company to offer little-known recent theater gems to local audiences. Nominated for three Tony Awards in 2004, The Retreat from Moscow tells the story of an English couple, Edward and Alice, who are dealing with a dying marriage of three decades.

LOS ANGELES - Protesters gathered yesterday outside the Mormon temple in Westwood to protest Tuesday's passage of Proposition 8, the California initiative that bans same-sex marriage. Soon after the rally got under way at 2 p.m., men and women hoisting signs shouted down men in suits from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yelling "Shame on you!" and pointing at them. The men and a groundskeeper stood looking at them impassively. Mormon leadership in Salt Lake City had strongly encouraged Mormons in California to help pass Proposition 8 with donations of time and money.

On a beautiful, clear October day, at a rustic ranch high above Silicon Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a couple did what couples have so often done on beautiful, clear days: They got married. People arrived from near and far for my cousin Cyndi's wedding. Her brother flew in from New England; my daughter and I were the Mid-Atlantic contingent. And from all over California came uncles, aunts, cousins, in-laws and friends by the dozen. They signed the katubah, a Jewish marriage contract.

Add one more attribute to the "right stuff" men should possess. It turns out the really righteous guys are also genetically programmed to be loving, faithful mates. Scientists at Sweden's Karolinska Institute reported recently that for the first time, they have found a direct link between a man's genetic makeup and his aptitude for marriage. Their research showed that men who lack a particular variant of a gene that influences brain activity are more likely to be devoted, loving husbands and more likely to be involved with women who praise them as emotionally close and available.