Last week, Salon ran an interview with Lori Gottlieb, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. We added our two cents here.

And the other day, The Daily Beast ran a piece by Anne Milford and Jennifer Gauvain, authors of How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy. You’ll be glad to read they take a considerably different view. 

Read it and smile.

I came across a fascinating article in The Daily Beast this morning about a phenomenon a priest mentioned last summer. He said he wouldn’t have to alter his weekend Mass schedule to accommodate weddings because they’re just weren’t enough weddings to warrant it.

“Nobody wants to commit,’ he lamented.

The Beast’s Hannah Seligson writes:

“The median age for a first marriage in the United States is the highest it’s ever been—27.1 for a man and 25.3 for a woman—and it skews even higher in many cities, giving way to more years of dating before marriage. In fact, 23 million adults are in unmarried committed relationships. Over 12 million unmarried partners live together, a trend that is being exhibited in a large part by the 25-to-34-year-old demo.

‘Dating is not what it was 50 years ago. Dating is evolving into this gradual process of moving in. It involves nights spent over at one or the other’s place. There’s the toothbrush, then a few items of clothing. All of a sudden, they realize they’ve moved in,’ says Pamela Smock, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who studies cohabitation.”

 Seligson thinks she knows why singles don’t perceive marriage as the great deal it once seemed to be. Check out her article here (and then come back and tell us what you think).