Don Adriano

My wedding is coming up next year. We'll be happy to have our friends and family celebrate the event with us, but I imagine that some people will want to congratulate us by sending a gift. This will be very hard to deal with, for the reasons below.

My fiancée and I have been together for years. We already have everything that we need and almost everything that we want. We'll be getting married in the USA, but we live oversees. It would probably cost as much to ship gifts as to buy them new over there.

I don't like the idea of directing people how to give me things. It just seems rude. I certainly am not going to ask for cash. Even asking that gifts not be given seems presumptuous. On the other hand, I hate to accept people's gifts knowing that I'm just going to have to sell them or re-gift them.

What would you do?

Ma amie et moi allons aller à la Place du Tertre dans Montmartre pour avoir notre portrait fait par un des artistes qui travaillent là. Combien est un prix raisonnable à payer pour un croquis rapide de crayon ? Ou un portrait en charbon de bois ? Ou bien pour un tableau d'huile sur toile ?

My girlfriend and I are going to the Place to Tertre in Montmartre to have our portrait made by one of the street artists who set up their easels there. What is a reasonable amount to pay for a quick pencil sketch? Or a charcoal drawing? Or a full on painting?

In the debate over gay marriage, I sometimes hear the following proposal made. Does this idea have a "name" or some shorter way of referring to it?

The idea is that the government should not be in the business of sanctioning marriages at all. Instead, it should only provide civil unions to any consenting adults that wish to form such a union. "Marriage" would be a completely religious institution and it would be up to each church to decide whether or not they would solemnize marriages for homosexual couples.