who wouldn't stick around for a $250 ice bucket?

Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum compares runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks to Jane Eyre:

But where Jane Eyre merely defied her era's conventional morality, it seems to me that the Wilbanks story also underlines some ambiguities in our conventional morality. Nowadays you're not supposed to marry for money or status, although we all know some people do. You're supposed to be happy at your wedding, even though some people aren't. At the same time, it's still considered selfish and immature to run away and abandon the caterers if you're distraught -- even though lots of people probably want to. Part of the culture says the conventional, social bits of weddings don't matter, and part of the culture says they do. Part of the culture says weddings are about true love, and part of the culture says they're about Cuisinarts.

It's undeniable that Wilbanks greatly inconvenienced a large number of well-wishers and law enforcement officers, but I fear the threat of criminal charges betrays something of a double standard. Entire television programs have been dedicated to the recuperation of women left at the altar (my favorite being women who went on to whoop it up at the reception anyway), and never once did I hear of the absconding man being hauled into the hoosgow.

Via Bookninja