Old E’s section announcements began to resemble the New York Times’ wedding section last month, following Bill Fruhan’s invitation to his engagement party that was issued prior to his actual proposal.(This time we think you might have missed something, Bill.) The outbreak of engagements spread faster than the first year cough, leaving stories of creative proposals, raucous engagement parties, and rumors that a very few single “E”s might still exist. (Note: Ugwunna would like to take this opportunity to clarify that he is NOT in fact engaged, he simply got caught up in the spirit of things.)
Looking for answers to explain the engagement phenomenon, I decided against doing any genuine research and instead offer a few references to my sectionmates’ comments and a completely subjective analysis (an approach that OE is well accustomed to.)
“It’s so sad to see so many young people willing to give up their freedom,” mused Richard Fraser, “Don’t people fight and die for freedom?”
As usual, no one wanted to attempt to follow Richard’s profundity, so I offer a few theories:
1. The temperature in Aldrich 209 was designed to inspire closer interpersonal relations.
2. Tom’s “vision, commitment, execution” framework had more applications than we realized.
3. Our summer grooms Brian, Paul and Eric are promoting marriage with an extremely effective campaign of newlywed bliss
4. Steve Kaufman made a compelling case on the R&D pipeline: keep your WIP low and launch the product.
Is Itamar’s marriage proposal in the hallway of Aldrich an indicator that the fever is spreading? (By the way, “Maybe we should get married?” would have been more compelling delivered on one knee.) Only time will tell, but while we eagerly await the next announcement we’re going long on diamonds and hiring Bradley for PR.
Congratulations to our recent engagements Bill and Lisa, Zaid and Mariam, Carlos and Joanna, and our soon-to-be newlyweds Haley and Ryan, Andrea and Robert, and Kerry and Nathan!
