here - Rob MacDougall

THE NEW YORK TIMES WEDDINGS SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2002
VOWS
ST
Photographs by Peter Corless for The New York Times
Lisa Faden, Robert MacDougall
Mr. MacDougall, 30, was raised by
wolves in the Canadian wilderness.
OU should not believe
There he learned their cunning and
everything Lisa Yoshiko Faden
cruelty, but his noble bloodline
and
Robert
Duncan
reasserted itself when he was
MacDougall tell you about their
discovered by missionaries and restored
relationship. Ms Faden, for instance,
to his family’s ancestral estate. “Asays that she “picked up” her future
wooooooo-oo!”
said
James
husband “in a dive bar.” Mr.
MacDougall, the bridegroom’s brother
MacDougall claims that the two first
and best man.
met in Hong Kong. In truth, the two
On June 29, a crowd of family and
were introduced by mutual friends at
friends gathered at the bride’s alma
the Hong Kong, a Boston bar of last
mater, a picturesque New England
resort known for sticky floors and a
college, to see the happy couple wed.
cheerful disregard for legal drinking
Guests sipped cocktails of litchi,
ages or closing times. “The Kong is not
pomegranate, and prosecco, and
where you’d expect to find Mr. Right,”
danced to a hair-metal band containing
said Jennifer Morrill, one of the friends
for mer members of Poison and
who brought the couple together. “Just
Warrant. After much coaxing, the bride
his evil twin, Mr. Available.” Daniel
sat in on bass guitar for a rousing
Hamilton, another friend who
rendition of “Unskinny Bop.”
AMHERST, MASS. JUNE 29 Guests, top, mingled in an idyllic woodland setting
engineered that meeting, agreed. “You
In the spirit of the occasion,
before the ceremony. Above, the happy couple share an embrace.
will never find a more wretched hive
Americans and Canadians mingled
of scum and villainy,” he said.
together, mostly without incident. (The
‘Good Will Hunting.’” For her part, Ms Faden won
But both bride and groom are sincere when they
Canadians were polite in mixed company, but huddled
Mr. MacDougall’s heart with a “really goofy”
marvel at their good fortune in finding one another.
amongst themselves to complain about Yankees who
impression of Alexis de Tocqueville. “Plus, she dances
“Think of all the unlikely things that had to happen
conflated the Ottawa and Saskatchewan Roughriders,
just like a Muppet,” he said.
just so that Lisa and I would meet in that exact place
while American guests laughed openly about the
Friends described the couple with enchanting, if
at that exact moment,” said Mr.MacDougall. “The
Canucks’ pronunciation of the word “sorry.”)
meaningless, paradoxes. “Lisa is daring yet traditional,
only rational explanation is that all of human history
The ceremony reflected the couple’s diverse
grounded but berserk, sensible yet spontaneous, highhas been an immense and secret conspiracy to bring
heritage. Bride and groom composed their own vows,
flying yet down to earth, out-going but shy,” said
us together.”
entwining elements of medieval French love poetry,
Elaine Worthy Thomas, a bridesmaid. “Rob is the last,
History is a subject the couple knows something
the Kabbalah, and lines from “The Simpsons” and
or maybe the second-to-last, of the neo- quasi- postabout. Ms Faden, a graduate of Amherst College and
“WKRP in Cincinnati.” Ms Faden, who is of Jewish
retro- Renaissance men,” said Mr. MacDougall’s friend
Harvard University, teaches world, American, and East
and Japanese descent, wore an antique kimono in the
Peter Stuart. “But he hates labels.”
Asian history at Newton North High School in
style of Tomoe Gozen, a legendary woman samurai.
Ms Faden, 29, grew up in Bethesda, Maryland.
Newton, Massachusetts. Mr. MacDougall, a graduate
The couple stood under a chuppah hand-quilted by
She has traveled throughout Japan and China, where
of Queen’s University at Kingston, is completing a
the bride’s chakra circle. Mr. MacDougall’s Scotchshe gained the mysterious power to cloud men’s minds.
PhD in American history at Harvard. “He charmed
Canadian ancestry was reflected by a cash bar.
Returning from the East, Ms Faden made a name for
me on our first date talking about Gordon Wood’s
“Iä! The stars are right, the age of man is at an
herself in the 1990s as an international art thief. But
‘Creation of the American Republic,’ how Wood
end! By marrying you I complete the ancient
she soon learned that with great power comes great
drastically underestimates the impact of social
prophecy!” said Lakota shaman Donald Scary Bear,
responsibility—and gave up her life of crime for a
distinctions predicated on wealth,” recalled Ms Faden.
who performed the ceremony.
career in teaching.
“Wait—on second thought, that was a scene from
“Mwaa ha ha ha ha ha!” he added.
By LOIS SMITH BRADY
Y
9