Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 24, 2015

I once officiated a marriage. All it required was 5 signatures: the bride, the groom, 2 witnesses and me, the officiant. No vows were exchanged.

Instead in 1980 I was the witness for one my ex : very embarrassing for the girl I was with

My sister performed our niece’s wedding, having purchased the title of minister in the Universal Life Church way back in the 70s. First time she used it for anything.

Marriages are civil contracts. All the religious add-ons are like icing on a cake—unnecessary but attractive to most people.

I didn’t recognize the reference to Bitburg, but it sounded familiar. It was a military cemetery in Germany that President Reagan was going to visit in 1985 because the White House thought U.S. soldiers were buried there. There weren’t any, but there were graves of S.S. soldiers. When the White House tried to back out of the visit, it became a major flap in both countries. In the end, Reagan did go.

“… seared, like Alpo, in our memories.” Love that total non-sequitur.

It should be against some kind of law to marry two people when 1.5 of them are suffering from some kind of mental issue…

Now I am trying to remember. There was a dog food commercial that would sear the contents with a branding iron, just before the end of the commercial. Was it Alpo?

Wait, that was Mighty Dog.

And when Ely Weisel said that Reagan’s place was not at that cemetary, Bush Sr gave him a quite visible stink eye.