Etc...

Go ahead without us

Assuming for the sake of argument that you are an Argentine, Adolfo Caballero hopes you'll understand, but he and his wife don't want to come to your wedding.In fact, they'd prefer that you don't even bother to invite them. Or so said the announcement that he paid to place in a mass-circulation Buenos Aires newspaper a few days ago. On the society page, yet. Although the gesture has a certain in-your-face quality, the 60-something attorney explains that it's simply "due to our saturated social calendar." When the notice attracted attention and journalists called to question him about it, Caballero decided that perhaps he ought to be a bit more forthcoming. Well, see, he told them, he and Mrs. Caballero are flooded with invitations from the children of his clients and members of his club – not to mention from their own relatives. What's more, Argentine weddings tend to take big chunks out of the weekends, what with long drives to and from the countryside, where it has become fashionable to take one's vows. Oh, and then there's the fact that at the receptions afterward, "youngsters want to dance until 5 a.m." That may be fun for them, he said, but the next day "when I want to play tennis ... I'm tired."