Etc.

And may nothing divide us

Many couples schedule their weddings in June because the weather most likely will be warm and the month happens to be named for the Roman goddess of marriage. Others time theirs for Christmas. Audra Smith and Joe Ahl, on the other hand, decided to exchange vows on March 14. Why? Because they're both math teachers at Fairport High School in suburban Rochester, N.Y. Don't see the connection? Well, math isn't just an interest they share; it's also a passion. "I absolutely love [it]," the new bride told reporters. "I find it fascinating." Joe says he knew as far back as the sixth grade that teaching math was the career he wanted. OK, but how does that explain choosing to wed on a chilly Saturday in a northern climate when they could have waited a couple of months until the school year ended for the summer? The answer is in the date: 3/14. Or, expressed another way, 3.14. In other words, the first three digits of the mathematical representation of pi – the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter that's so vital not just in that discipline but also in science and engineering. Pi is an endless, nonrepeating number that has been known to mathematicians dating to ancient Egypt. But that only would have complicated the issue for Audra's and Joe's students, who came up with the idea that it would be appropriate for people who teach math to tie the knot on that date and talked them into it. If you're wondering how the two met, it was in the laundry room of a college dormitory when she walked in as he was washing clothes ... while doing homework for a calculus course.