WHY DOES marriage matter? This is why.

Andrew Sullivan points out:

Yes, there are some contracts that can be drawn up to provide more protection than Conrad is getting. But in states which have passed marriage and civil union bans for gay couples, those protections are vulnerable to legal challenge from other kin.

Speaking of marriage, here's a new Legal Eagle Wedding Watch.

And speaking further of marriage, my husband and I are off to celebrate our one-year-anniversary! Fortunately, Alabama repealed its constitutional ban on miscegenation in 2000, so we don't have to fret about that. (On the other hand, we do have to pack our own bottle of champagne because our destination is a dry county.)

JEFFREY KLINEMAN on what makes Southern sweet tea so special:

Drinking sweet tea is one of the oldest and most exceptional Southern traditions. As Dolly Parton's character in Steel Magnolias puts it, it's the "house wine of the South"—a clear, orange-to-red tinted tea brewed from six or seven Lipton or Luzianne tea bags, poured hot onto a cup or more of sugar or a pool of simple syrup, and then diluted into a gallon pitcher in the fridge. It's served over a mound of ice in a huge glass—so cold that you can watch your napkin drown in a puddle of condensation.

I love iced tea, but I'm usually a Sweet'n'Low girl -- who needs the extra calories? I confess, though, that during our year in Alabama I've ordered sweet tea a couple of times, and it is goooooood.

SOME PEOPLE, including a former Clinton administration official, are speculating that global warming caused the Minnesota bridge collapse:

Melissa Hortman of the Minnesota House of Representatives "speculated that 90-plus-degree heat Wednesday and the above-normal temperatures of the past two summers may have been a contributing factor," and said "You wonder if this bridge was built to withstand the massive heat we have had this summer."

Yikes. The weather's been sizzling down here in Alabama this week, but it hasn't melted any bridges yet.

Jonah Goldberg: "All that's left is for someone to blame the bridge collapse on Whittaker Chambers' scurrilous lies about Alger Hiss."