Excellent advice. I was determined I wouldn't marry anyone unless I experienced full-blown, Doctor Zhivago/The English Patient all-consuming fire (not that I was looking for someone already married, I hasten to add, per the plot of those stories). When I met my (single) wife there were two options: I was going to marry her, or I was going to die. Looking back, it was actually rather terrifying as I have never felt so out of control in my life. The dizzying highs (when we were together) and lows (when we were not - we were intially in a long-distance relationship) were out-of-body-experience agonising pleasure and pain.

Yes, I know it is scientific fact that such things calm down in time, to be replaced (in our case) with a solid, dependable love that stands the test of time through good, bad, inevitable ups and downs, and so forth (we've been married almost 22 years). Is my marriage perfect? Of course not. But life without my wife? Too horrifying to contemplate.

One more thing: We both despise the kind of sniping and complaining about one another's spouse that you reference in this article, and both resolved never to do it when we met. To date, we have always resolved any differences in private.

I hope that didn't come off as too smug. Rather, I hope to inspire any single people reading this to NEVER compromise on their standards and ideals.

(Sorry for the SHOUTY CAPS)