Marriage on the brain this week, I’m afraid. My own will be this Saturday, which, by complete coincidence, is also the third anniversary of the Goodridge decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. If we’re lucky, we’ll get the Leonid meteor shower to provide us with some fireworks.

Farther afield, the BBC News yesterday highlighted a lesbian couple in South Africa who want to be among the first to marry under the country’s Civil Union bill, passed two days ago. Note, however, the BBC’s use of the terms “marry” and “wedding” even though the legislation is for “civil unions.” The term “marriage” is so powerful (as I’ve said before) that its verb and associated vocabulary even creep in where there was a deliberate effort made to keep it out. It’s also interesting that the Beeb chose not to put “marry” and “wedding” in quotes (though I’m doing so here in citing them), when only a short year ago, they felt it was necessary to use them when speaking about same-sex ceremonies in their home country. Progress, one punctuation mark at a time. [My error. Although the bill that South Africa passed is named the "Civil Union Act," it authorizes the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union." I suppose this reinforces the point that all the variations in terminology are confusing.]