Law Prof’s Whirlwind Engagement to Poster on Her Blog Sparks Comments

Law bloggers are in a flurry over news that professor Ann Althouse of the University of Wisconsin School of Law is engaged ... to a man she met after he initially made contact with her more than four years ago as a commenter on her law blog.

While many commenters simply offered congratulations about news of the romance, posted by Althouse herself last week (confirming a less clearcut comment chain on her blog), others couldn't resist sniping.

Today, under the headline "No comment possible," Andrew Sullivan, on the Atlantic magazine's Daily Dish, summarizes the whirlwind romance thusly: "Ten days of e-mailing ... and she was ready."

In an e-mailed response, however, Althouse points out that her fiancé, "Meade"—with whom she "squabbles" in a November 2005 comment chain on the RLC blog, is actually someone she had chatted with online for years before things really got going several months ago.

"We decided to meet in person after an exchange of email in December. We met in January and then, after a some additional email, decided to meet again in mid-February, and then we fell in love. We decided to get married after two more weekends and a 10-day spring break," Althouse says in the e-mail. "Why is this something that you choose to mock?"

Hat tip: Above the Law.

More commenters obsess about the new romance in:

Blogginheads.tv: "Love in the Time of Commenters"

Ace of Spades HQ: "Awww: Ann Althouse Engaged to One of Her Commenters"