Cinco de Mayo

It may not have escaped your notice that our wedding date falls on Cinco de Mayo.

For those of you who have not had occasion to celebrate this up-and-coming holiday (at least as far as American celebrations go), Cinco de Mayo ("The Fifth of May" in Spanish) is a national holiday in Mexico, which has been growing in popularity in the United States in recent years. It commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza over the French occupational forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Now we may not be of Mexican ancestry, nor are our Spanish-language skills too impressive, but we do like a good holiday. So don't be surprised if you see a little Latino flavor in our wedding festivities.

After all, who doesn't like an excuse to throw back a little tequila?

Click here to learn more about Cinco de Mayo.

Where to stay

Julie has compiled a long list of places in and around Lenox. There are a number of quaint little inns around town, as well as a few economical motels nearby. Follow the link below to a page of choices.

Note that Lenox is pretty small, so no matter where you stay, you'll be close to it all. Hope you find just the right place for a fun weekend getaway in the Berkshire hills.

Click here to see the page of lodging choices. If you make a reservation somewhere, let us know -- we're trying to keep loose track of where everyone is staying.

Airport information

Are you planning to fly in to come see us? Then you may want to check this page out before you make all your arrangements.

Click here for all the info you need on getting to the Berkshires by air.

It's Greek to me

Someone sent me this quotation today. Makes me wonder what Mrs. Socrates had to say about things.

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher."

-- Socrates

On Language

Many moons ago, Stephen Gutkin (brother of our pal Bruce Gutkin) scored a high literary honor: a mention by William Safire in his On Language column. A reprint here seems appropriate.

The piece originally appeared in the March 25, 1990 edition of the New York Times Magazine. Back then, the divorce of Donald and Ivana Trump was in the news, in part because of the terms of their separation.

MARRIAGE LINES
By William Safire
THIS DEPARTMENT tries to stay on top of the proper pronunciation of words in the news. In the gossip arena, the word most often mangled is nuptial.

''After the tumult surrounding the playing of the celebrated Trump,'' writes Stephen Gutkin of Jersey City, ''I've yet to descry your voice on the subject of prenuptial, namely, 'Whence the pronunciation prenup-chewal?'''

There may be bite but no chew in prenuptial agreement.

The word nuptial is from the past participle of the Latin verb nubere, ''to marry,'' which is also the root of nubile, ''marriageable,'' or at least ''apparently fully developed sexually,'' which is not the same thing. Use the plural to refer to a wedding ceremony, as in ''I cannot make it to the nuptials, but I hope to be at the festive signing of the first postnuptial agreement.''

Pronounce nuptial NUP-shul, just as you pronounce the warlike martial MAR-shul. They are not NUP-chill or MAR-chill, and they are certainly not pronounced as if spelled ''nuptual'' or ''martual.'' (On the other hand, you can pronounce victuals VIT-els, because this synonym for food is used only in dialect form.)

Comments welcome

I got some complaints that in order to comment on any one of these posts, you previously had to be a registered Google user. I turned off that feature, so anyone should now be able to leave comments.

In case you're unfamiliar with how blogs work: To write something, simply click on the Comments button that appears at the bottom of each post.

Show times

It's been drawn to our attention that while we've mentioned the date, we have not said the time.

That's because we don't know for 100% sure. However, it looks likely that we will do an afternoon Wedding Mass (at about 1:30), followed by a little break in the action, followed by a reception that starts early in the evening (5-ish, or perhaps 6-ish).

That means that New Yorkers and Bostonians who are driving up on Saturday will want to leave their homes by 9 or 9:30 a.m. Lenox is about a 3-hour drive from Manhattan, and maybe 2:45 from Back Bay. Traffic, naturally, is the ever-present variable.

During the break between Mass and reception, people will be able to do many things: nap; drive golf balls; take in high tea at one of the local inns. If you ask nicely, they might give you a little Maker's Mark with your Earl Grey, too.

It's official: May 5

We signed the papers. Not the marriage papers, but the papers that obligate us to hold a big party at a big house in Lenox.

So SAVE THE DATE: May 5, 2007. Cinco de Mayo. In Italiano, that's Cinque di Maggio. Of course, the date has no meaning in Italian, but my accent is better.

Anyway, be there or be square.

Belvoir Terrace

The reception is going to be held in this fantastic, 19th century mansion called the Belvoir Terrace.

It was built by a robber baron named Morris K. Jesup (more on him, perhaps, in a later post), who made his money in railroads. He's also the guy who funded the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

Extending the Gotham link, the grounds on the property were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, of Central Park fame.

Going to the Chapel

We've set a date and picked the place. May 5, 2007. The nuptials will be at St. Ann Church in Lenox, Mass. Reception just up the road at Belvoir Terrace in Lenox.

Many, many more details to follow.