A Sign of Progress?The New York Times prints a
tale of two lovers who were married, but not to each other.
Carol Anne Riddell and John Partilla met in 2006 in a pre-kindergarten classroom. They both had children attending the same Upper West Side school. They also both had spouses.
Part “Brady Bunch” and part “The Scarlet Letter,” their story has played out as fodder for neighborhood gossip. But from their perspective, the drama was as unlikely as it was unstoppable.
Unstoppable, we can guess. Unlikely? She's a TV person for chrissakes. There's no mention of it in the Times' article, but I'm going to take a big guess that neither of these two were on their first spouses when they met.
In May 2008, Mr. Partilla invited her for a drink at O’Connell’s, a neighborhood bar. She said she knew something was up, because they had never met on their own before.
“I’ve fallen in love with you,” he recalled saying to her. She jumped up, knocking a glass of beer into his lap, and rushed out of the bar. Five minutes later, he said, she returned and told him, “I feel exactly the same way.” Then she left again.
It's just like that scene with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in
Play It Again, Sam! Well, except for the part about her leaving again; that didn't happen.
Anyway, the sign of progress is not the Times publishing this fawning profile. It's the reactions. The
Village Voice:
"I did a terrible thing as honorably as I could," said the man who left his wife and three children. THEN HE TOLD THE MOST FAMOUS NEWSPAPER ALL ABOUT IT SO WHEN HIS KIDS GROW UP THEY CAN GOOGLE HIS NAME AND SLAM THE DOOR OF THEIR ROOMS AND SIDE WITH THEIR MOTHER.
Ditto for
New York Magazine:
Only one year ago, we noted the Times' gross habit of including people in the "Vows" column who very clearly cheated on and abandoned a former spouse or lover before getting hitched to the current one, then went on to revel in it in the Times, so their exes can relive that period in all its painful glory.
