Each Monday, Intern Alexis uses a rigorous scale to rank the happy pair-bonds cemented in the Times wedding announcements. But surely, the Times can't contain all the nuptial bliss to be experienced in the metro area. Ergo, the Post's weddings section, where the couples require a more flexible scale that can take into consideration differences in, say, life experience, and body type.

This week, New York Post love was all about coincidence, children, and treasure hunts. For some reason, men seem to really enjoy this trick where they bury their girlfriends' engagement rings in boxes. Also, as you'll see, Ad Hoc's already unpredictable points system suffers a total meltdown this week—maybe it's just us, but the Post couples appear to be getting wealthier, classier, and more worldly, and we don't exactly know how to respond.


Desiderio Cubas and Astrid Schumacher

  • Desiderio was working as a schoolteacher in Japan when he met Astrid, a jewelry-designer, in the travel section of a Manhattan bookstore. He was in town during a vacation from school; she was just looking at some books about Indonesia: -3.5
  • The couple went on a few dates before Desi—this is maybe what she called him by this time?—had to fly back to Japan. So they wrote each other e-mails: +4.0
  • Serendipity struck six months later at the airport in Tokyo, when Astrid ran into Desi in line while waiting for a connecting flight to Bali. Overwhelmed by the coincidence, they kissed for the first time: +4.0
  • Astrid's parents live in Switzerland. That's where the couple went for their honeymoon before hitting up Paris and Italy on their own: -1
  • According to Google, the 64-year-old Mr. Cubas once signed a petition supporting a publishing house in Turkey that was facing indictment for printing a translation of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent: +5.0
  • He also has a very flattering moustache: +5.0
  • ...and a cool yellow scarf?! +5.0
  • Travis Harrison and Rebeca Roses
  • Travis, 27, runs a record label called Serious Business. According to the label's website, their flagship acts include the "100% bad-ass rowdy rock music" group Kickstart and a duo called the Two Man Gentleman Band who play "old-time, two-man music at a reasonable volume and a lively pace": -10.0
  • He met Rebecca when they were students at Columbia. Rebecca is now a schoolteacher: -10.0
  • When he proposed, Travis put the ring he'd bought in a a bag of gummy worms for Rebecca to find. "I put the ring in a bag of candy," Travis tells the Post. "I knew I had to seize the moment." Sorta like when Peter Boneta put his engagement ring in an Easter basket back in March and it took "a little coaxing" for his girlfriend to "find something even sweeter" inside than chocolate: +8.0
  • Susan DiBiase and Terence Bolger
  • Susan and Terence are 46 and 47, respectively: +5.0
  • Susan is a social worker; Terence is a customer service manager: +5.0
  • They met 30 years ago, at a high school graduation party, when Susan's car broke down and Terence gave her a ride home: +7.0
  • Remembering the evening, Susan proclaims: "There's no such thing as coincidence. Coincidence is God's attempt at remaining anonymous." This not a bad saying, actually: +8.0

    Vincent Menager and Yvonne Escobar
  • Both hotel workers; he's an executive chef, she's a catering manager. In terms of the production cycle, neither could function without the other: +5.0
  • To propose, Vincent "filled a box with rose petals and pictures from special times in our relationship," and underneath it all buried a ring: +10.0
  • Nichola Joyce and William Pointer III
  • Met when Nichola was auditioning for the Brooklyn Christian Cultural Center's 2002 production of the "The Wiz." William was a sound-monitor engineer; his dad was the church's associate pastor and he cast Nichola as a dancer: +7.0
  • Fast-forward five years, and that very same associate pastor is presiding over Nichola and William's wedding ceremony at the very same church: +11.0
  • The couple then go to Disney World for their honeymoon: +15.0
  • And so, with 33 points, Nichola and William win for some reason. Something about that storybook coherence, probably. Is our system collapsing?—LEON