It's your story, and you're entitled to tell it - but you didn't just tell it to those who regularly comment here and who have read it before, but to everyone out there with a computer and some free time - and if I've learned anything, it's that we don't have control over how anyone interprets or reacts to what we "say" here or anywhere else.

And I know this because you are now putting words and thoughts into my mouth that I didn't say - or think or mean.  It wouldn't be the first time, and I'm certain it won't be the last.  

Some of the words you used made me wince - sorry - and I truly did not see or understand how they added anything to anyone's ability to understand the pain of your experience; and apparently, I wasn't alone in being puzzled by the gratuitous language.  

I used to tease my dad by calling him "Large Marge in Charge".

The "other woman" was just half the outlet for his hurt (in my reading), and when people feel hurt by others they sometimes think/say the most hateful derogatory things...I think that is fairly natural. Sh*t, if it had been me I can imagine far worse popping into my head and out my mouth in that situation....far far worse.  I've said/thought far far worse over a run of the mill broken heart.

the more effective analogy would have been to MDF's running off not with a black woman but with a black man

Donald's point, apart from telling a story in which his own flaws constitute the laff riot, was to show how his heterosexism & deeply ingrained sense of male entitlement deformed his whole outlook on the world, & to convey that point in the language of wounded, furious phallocracy

now, if MDF's honey had been a black man, it's easy to imagine the torrent of racist vitriol that would have escaped the furious maw of wounded, white-liberal-but-scratch-a-white-liberal Donald, all in a lather because one of THEM was adulterating one of OUR pure white wimminfolk with his _ __ ___.

so let's imagine that MDF did run off with the brother of "Shaniqua" (your nomenclature, btw - should i rake you over the coals for giving her that name, or were you simply engaging in the very same narrative strategy that Donald used, & that i have just used by imagining Donald using it in the preceding paragraph?)

you ask:

Would there have been even the faintest tinge of distaste at reading that he had been left for someone who was [insert racist language here]?

let me answer

i am sure there would have been distaste in tinges & outrage by the bucket, though i am not convinced that every liberal-minded reader would have taken the story that way

probably also didn't help that I had no idea that 'large marge' was a known fictional character - shows how out of it I am with pop culture, lack of TV, etc.

apparently the world is chock full of people who think the vows they take when they get married are just suggestions, or it's okay to silently add "if it's not too hard or if I feel like it or something better doesn't come along" to what they are promising to do.

Of course, there was also that other story around that time -- man landing on the Moon for the first time.  Yes, that one got a little more coverage, as it should have.  But the political/legal press was out in full force on Martha's Vineyard that summer covering his case.  Field day for everyone, including what passed for the RW media of course, and the Nixon WH.

But I'm not sure why some of you are re-hashing that 42 y.o. case in the context of A. Weiner.  TK engaged in reckless conduct, including some drinking, which probably caused his impaired decision to drive that bridge.  Weiner, presumably fully sober, chose time and again -- we don't know how many times -- to make a fool of himself via Twitter and other social electronic means with at least 6 women (probably more when all the facts are out) other than his wife; virtual cheating one could say, and then massively lying about it later.

John Farrar, the diver who recovered Kopechne's body and captain of the Edgartown Fire Rescue unit, asserted that Kopechne did not die from the vehicle overturn or from drowning, but rather from suffocation, based upon the posture in which he found the body and its position relative to the area of an ultimate air pocket in the overturned vehicle.

Of course, the medical examiner who examined her body concluded that the cause of death was drowning, as did the PA court that heard the request for exhumation.

Teddy waited some 9 hours and only issued a statement after the body was discovered.

I know a woman, a former college classmate and work collegue, who, over the years, has indulged in, or tried to, similar behavior (phone sex, sexually loaded emails) with prominent men; actors, muscians, politicians, a sportscaster she had a crush on, etc. She is not mentally stable and in fact at this point in her life has slipped into full blown mental illness. But she was extremely attractive and seductive, and was doing this sort of thing well into her 50s. Ted Kennedy and Martin Sheen were two of her marks -- but, despite great persistence, she totally failed with them. They had layers of protection. She had more success with, and easier access to, people in the rock and sports world.

On the plus side--colorful sunsets.

Kyle Fredin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Denver, said Monday that a ridge of high pressure was carrying the smoke as far away as central Iowa. He said the smoke was also hitting eastern Colorado -- where it obscured the view of the mountains from downtown Denver -- as well as New Mexico, Nebraska and Kansas.

Fredin said the smoke won't be as noticeable in the Midwest, where humidity already makes conditions hazy, but it would likely cause striking orange-pink sunrises and sunsets, as it has in Denver.

But the truly weird idea in the comment I was responding to is that anybody who has a sex life (of whatever kind) must not have any other kind of goals in life.

Good luck tonight, blow off some of that steam, and don't let the man put you on tilt...his day will come, I just gotta believe that.

An around-the-world sea going tour of gambling hotspots has a certain appeal. Aren't there a number of places in Asia (Macau comes to mind) where casinos flourish?

And speaking of deregulation, air fares are less now than they were 40 years ago.... But wait, wasn't that Carter?

And I can call anywhere in the US and talk as long as I want for around $15.00/month... Have you ever heard of the Carterphone ruling???? 1996 Telcom bill??

Was all deregulation good?? No. What I can't figure out is why Barney Frank opposed Bush's attempt to re-regulate Freddie and Fannie???

9/11/2003
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

Snip

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

NYTimes9112003

Wow. How did that work out?