Thanks so much to all the people who have sent me e-mails and words of encouragement today! It is thrilling to have my little blog be well-received on its first day at school. (On a technical note, I apologize to anyone who tried to post a comment today and was denied. Minor technical glitch/user error on my part. Hopefully all is good now.) I appreciate your support and I hope you keep coming back for more! Tell all your friends! No, seriously. Tell all your friends.

Now on to the naked, wedding, princess bride-tastic nonsense …

First up: Is 7-7-7, the luckiest day ever to get married? The folks at the Venetian hotel-casino on the Strip are banking on it (or is that the distinct smell of a ridiculous photo op I smell?). In April the company announced that they have increased their wedding capacity and will be uniting 77 couples on July 7, 2007, or 7-7-07. It’s a whopping three times as many weddings as a normal day. Now that’s classy, not to mention very respectful of the oh-so-sacred matrimonial union that gets everybody’s panties in a bunch. Behold the sanctity of the cheesy quickie, publicity-stunt-style Vegas weddings. Why don’t the folks who are so anti-same-sex marriage ever remember these kinds of prank weddings when they’re waxing poetic about the diginity of the hetero-union?

Speaking of sacred nuptials, what about the launch of the Disney princess wedding gown line. No, I did not make that up. Not only does this New York Daily News story trumpet the glory of adult women dressing up like Disney princesses (as if the bloated, commercial wedding industry needed another excuse to create bridezilla expectations and nightmares), but their main quote-base are 13-year-old girls. Gross. I admit, I can’t relate to the whole bride/princess fantasy because I never had that fantasy growing up — I call it divorced-parents syndrome — but in what sick world is a 13-year-old fantasy wedding the stuff of grown-up dreams? Besides this, I mean.

I know what you’ve all really been waiting for is the naked butts. And I’m not talking about the Riviera’s Crazy Girls bronze butts statue, either (which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year). No, this is more like 18,000 real, live naked folks posing for a photo by artist Spencer Tunick in the middle of Mexico City yesterday. Most news reports touted how shocking it was to have such an event in the normally modest Mexican city. Sounds like a challenge to me. Come on Vegas, we should show these folks how it’s done.