Be still my beating heart. Can it be true? George Clooney popped the question to a lawyer. But that lawyer wasn't me. Not that I ever met him. Or tried to meet him. I haven't. Although we're both from Ohio and both Catholic and all that. Never interviewed him for a radio or television show. Never asked his people to call my people. Just admired his films from afar. At least some of them. In the interests of full disclosure, George's Aunt Rosemary Clooney was my late father's favorite singer of all time.
Now, though, Clooney's alleged lawyerly engagement has created a bit of a stir. Has certain folks shall we say, Up in the Air.
Namely, without naming names, those who have used the excuse that they weren't getting married until Clooney did it one more time, are now stuck with finding another excuse to avoid matrimonial bliss. Or get in on the fun. Get hitched.
Get out your scorecards, please ladies. That's one more most eligible bachelor to check off your list. Or maybe not. Who knows anymore what's going on with these celebs? For example, Clooney's BFF, Brad Pitt. Are Pitt and Angelina Jolie married? I read the coosome twosome (a term coined by the late Chicago Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet), had finally tied the knot. Not known for sure.
In the olden days, when I started as a journalist, used to be you needed two sources before you could go with a story. But those were the days when facts were facts. And news was news. And people actually believed what they read in the papers, or heard on the radio, or saw on the nightly news. No internet then to believe in.
So, maybe congratulations are in order, and maybe not. Actually, it probably never hurts to congratulate someone. Just a blanket congratulations without getting too specific on why he or she is being congratulated. Perhaps a simple succinct "congrats" would do in most situations. That way not too pomp and circumstance-y, just in case. Just in case, nothing to be congratulated about really. But then you can, in a pinch, probably come up with something to congratulate anyone about. A new haircut, the color of a shirt, eyebrows, a tattoo you had never noticed before, an infectious laugh or giggle, a certain smile, an askance glance.
Actually, in the days when there were separate male and female "Help Wanted" ads in the classifieds section of newspapers, etiquette experts advised well-wishers to congratulate the man and offer "Best Wishes" to the woman. Something about the woman being the man's conquest, which is why he is congratulated on his conquest of her. Not sure why the term "Best Wishes" was reserved for the woman.
Why not just split the difference and say to the engaged couple simply Good Night, and Good Luck.
Lonna Saunders may be reached at lonna2@msn.com.