“Happiness is better than art.”

The Movie: Gaslight, 1944 (John Van Druten, Walter Reisch and John L. Balderston, screenwriters, from the play Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton; George Cukor, dir.)
Who says it: Emil Rameau as Maestro Mario Guardi, a music teacher
The context: Maestro Guardi tells Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) that he is letting her go as a student, because she is so much in love that she can’t sing well any more.
How to use it: When your life distracts you from your work. I'm going to start saying this to people who ask me how my novel is going.

I was going to rant about the LeTourneau-Fualaau wedding today, but Tod Goldberg does such a masterful job of it on his blog that you should just go read what he says. Can you imagine anyone finding it romantic if it had been a male teacher and a female student, seduced at the age of 13?

What shocked me most, though, was the report that Ms. LeTourneau's teenaged daughter had served as maid-of-honor at the wedding. Presumably, the girl's father would have had to give his permission for this, and that appals me as much as anything else.

Don't get me wrong, I feel nothing but sympathy for that man. When you get married, you expect all kinds of potential difficulties: your wife might spend too much, your husband might drink too much, either one of you might get a little too flirtatious with the neighbors. What you don't expect is that your wife will cheat on you with a sixth-grader. It's something you don't defend your marriage against, because it's not on the menu of possibilities. At least, it isn't for sane people.

And look at that, I went off and ranted anyway. Sorry.

Because all I really wanted to do today was say "Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburtstag," an Therese Schulz, wer hat heute zwolf Jahren. Super toll. Alle Gute, heute und immer, Therese.